Akiya Henry is currently playing Joylene in Perseverance Drive at the Bush Theatre. Her other theatre credits includes: Ten Women (Jackdaw at the Oval House Theatre), Cake and Congo (Theatre 503), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bristol Old Vic), Mottled Lines (Orange Tree Theatre), Swallows and Amazons (Vaudeville Theatre & UK Tour, Bristol Old Vic), The Colored Museum (Talawa Theatre Company), The Beggar’s Opera (Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park), Much Ado About Nothing/ Shakespeare in a Suitcase (RSC New York), Hello Dolly (Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park), The Tempest (Open Air Theatre Regent’s Park), Vajak Paw (The Opera Group), Carmen Jones (The Southbank Centre, Ramond Gubbay Ltd), Safe (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Coriolanus (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Enchanted Pig (Young Vic Theatre/Opera Group), Under the Black Flag (Shakespeare’s Globe), Coram Boy (Royal National Theatre), Once in a Lifetime (Royal National Theatre), Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Sheffield Crucible Theatre), Just So (Chichester Festival Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chichester Festival Theatre), Skellig (Young Vic Theatre), Anything Goes (Royal National Theatre), Bintou (Arcola Theatre), Love’s Labour’s Lost (Royal National Theatre), The Singing Group (Chelsea Theatre), Closer to Heaven (Really Useful Group), Into the Woods (NYMT). Television includes: Silent Witness, Captain Mack, Casualty, Little Britain, Doctors. Film includes: Rabbit Fever, The Best Man, Calcium Kid, De Lovely. Radio includes: One Two Zoo, Reality Check, The Ballad of Frankie Banks
You’ve recently opened in Perseverance Drive playing the role of Joylene at the Bush Theatre, how is it going so far?
You know what, it’s been going brilliantly. The audiences and critics have been wonderfully responsive and the feedback has been eye opening, in a good way. Now that the sun is shining, everyone really does feel that they are in Barbados!
