Akiya Henry is a British actress. She is best known for her theatre work, winning a WhatsOnStage Award and earning a Laurence Olivier Award nomination.

Early life

Henry was born in London and, at six months old, placed in foster care with her siblings, through which she was raised in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset by a British-Maltese couple named Joyce and George Dymock.^[1][2] Henry joined the National Youth Music Theatre. She earned a scholarship to study at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut^[3][4] and also trained with Gail Gordon, then Head of Dance at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Career

In 2001, Henry made her professional stage debut as one of Billie's Babes in the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer to Heaven at the Arts Theatre. Henry also featured as a vocalist on the original cast recording. The following year, she made her television debut with a guest appearance in an episode of the BBC medical soap opera Doctors. Henry had roles in the ensemble of Anything Goes and then in Love's Labour's Lost at the National Theatre in 2002 and 2003 respectively, and in Trevor Nunn's Skellig at the Young Vic.

In 2004, Henry made her feature film debut with a small role in De-Lovely and appeared in A Midsummer Night's Dream in Chichester in 2004 as Hermia, a role she would reprise on tour in 2013. She played the Zebra in the musical Just So, also in Chichester, and featured on the cast recording, originated the role of Toby in Helen Edmundson's 2005 play Coram Boy at the National Theatre, and appeared in the comedy film Unhitched. This was followed by role in Coriolanus and Under the Black Flag at Shakespeare's Globe in 2006.^[5]

Henry began working as a voice actress on the 2008 CITV series Captain Mack. In 2009, she played Miranda in The Tempest and Minnie Fay in the London revival of Hello, Dolly, both at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.

Henry voiced Amma in the CBeebies series Bing from 2014 to 2019, and Jolli and Willi in the CBBC series Bottersnikes and Gumbles from 2015 to 2017. Her stage work at the time includes Deposit at the Hampstead Theatre^[6] and The Little Match Girl back at Shakespeare's Globe.^[7] She starred in Medea at Bristol Old Vic in 2018.^[8]

Also in 2018, Henry starred as Lady Macbeth opposite Mark Rowley in Kit Monkman's film adaptation of Macbeth.^[9] She would play Lady Macduff in The Tragedy of Macbeth at the Almeida Theatre in 2021. For her supporting performance in the latter, Henry won a WhatsOnStage Award^[10] and was nominated a for Laurence Olivier Award. She also starred in Giles Terera's The Meaning of Zong at Bristol Old Vic had a number of voice roles in the Disney series 101 Dalmatian Street, CITV series The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, and the Sky series Moominvalley. She went on to star in Much Ado About Nothing at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre as Beatrice^[11] and Mad House at the Ambassadors Theatre in 2022,^[12] and Phaedra at the National in 2023.^[13]

Filmography

Stage

Awards and nominations

References

External links

• Akiya Henry at IMDb
• Akiya Henry at United Agents