Ncuti Gatwa

Ncuti Gatwa is a gay Scottish-Rwandan actor who has been openly gay throughout his public life and has spoken candidly about both his queerness and the racism he experienced growing up as a Black man in Scotland. He first gained wide recognition for his performance as Eric Effiong in Netflix's Sex Education (2019) -- a flamboyant, joyful, deeply felt portrayal of a gay Nigerian-British teenager navigating his identity, his faith, his family, and his first love. The performance earned him three consecutive BAFTA Television Award nominations for Best Male Comedy Performance and a BAFTA Scotland Award win, making Eric Effiong one of the most beloved queer characters in recent British television, in large part because of the specificity and fullness Gatwa brought to a Black gay character whose story was not primarily about his Blackness or his gayness but about the full texture of his humanity. In 2023, Gatwa was announced as the 15th actor to play the Doctor in BBC's Doctor Who -- becoming the franchise's first Black lead in the iconic role. His arrival in that role was greeted as a historic moment in British science fiction. He has spoken about the responsibility and joy of carrying these two landmark identities -- gay Black man, the Doctor -- simultaneously.