Michaela Coel Bio, Age, Parents, Career, Net Worth
Rachel Fowler
Updated on February 13, 2026
Michaela Coel Bio, Age, Parents, Career, Net Worth – Michaela Coel is a British actress and screenwriter. She is best known for creating and starring in the E4 sitcom Chewing Gum (2015–2017), for which she received a BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, and for the BBC One/HBO comedy-drama series I May Destroy You (2020), for which she received a British Academy Television Award for Best Actress in 2021.
Coel was the first Black woman to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special for her work on I May Destroy You at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Michaela Coel biography
East London is the place of Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson’s birth. She and her sister were raised by their mother in East London, primarily in the boroughs of Hackney and Tower Hamlets.
She attended Catholic schools in East London and claimed that while in primary school, she bullied other students.
She claimed that this was because she was the only black student in her age group, which made her feel isolated. Her secondary education at a comprehensive school saw an end to the isolation.
Coel studied English literature and theology at the University of Birmingham from 2007 to 2009.
After meeting Walker at open mic nights, she enrolled in a Ché Walker masterclass. In 2009, she changed schools and enrolled as the first black woman at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in five years.
She was given the Laurence Olivier Bursary, which enabled her to pay for her education. Coel participated in the Mark Proulx workshop at Prima del Teatro and took the Kat Francois Poetry Course at the Theatre Royal Stratford East while she was a student at Guildhall.
Michaela Coel Age – What age is Michaela Coel?
Michaela Coel was born on 1 October 1987, and so she is 35 years old.
What height is Michaela Coel?
Michaela can be considered a tall lady as her height is 1.65 meters.
Michaela Coel parents
She was born to Ghanaian parents. Her parents were Ghanaian immigrants to London, however, their names and details are not available.
Michaela Coel career
Coel started giving readings at poetry open mics in Ealing in 2006. Actor, playwright, and director Ché Walker encouraged her to apply to Guildhall as she continued to perform at open mics after seeing her at the Hackney Empire.
Coel gave readings as a poet at venues such as Wembley Arena, Bush Theatre, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, and De Doelen in Rotterdam. Michaela The Poet was her stage name.
Coel enrolled in the TYPT summer school program run by the Talawa Theatre Company in 2009. Coel appeared in the TYPT 2009 production of Krunch while she was a student at Talawa.
Coel’s album Fixing Barbie, which featured her work as a poet and musician, was released that same year. We’re the Losers, a record by Coel, was released that year.
Coel made an appearance in the Channel 4 drama Top Boy in 2013 and has played the lead in several National Theatre productions, including the critically acclaimed Medea and the award-nominated Home.
In August 2014, Channel 4 revealed that Coel would pen and star in a new sitcom called Chewing Gum that was based on her play Chewing Gum Dreams. Teasers for “C4 Comedy Blaps” debuted in September 2014, and the series premiered on E4 in October 2015.
She won the 2016 British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for her performance. For writing the show, she also received a BAFTA for Breakthrough Talent.
Reviews for Chewing Gum were overwhelmingly favorable. Coel had a role in the BBC One drama London Spy in 2015.
Michaela Coel Net worth
Michaela Coel has been able to amass some wealth and as we speak, her net worth is in the region of $10 million.
Michaela Coel gender
Michaela Coel is a female and her name can even attest to this fact.
Is Michaela Coel in Top boy?
Michaela Coel was in Top Boy. She starred in the movie as Kayla. Ronan Bennett is the author of the British television crime drama series Top Boy. The series centers on two drug dealers, Dushane (Ashley Walters) and Sully (Kane Robinson), as well as other individuals involved in drug dealing and gang violence in London. It is set in the fictional Summerhouse estate in the London Borough of Hackney.
26 episodes from four series in total. The first two seasons were broadcast on Channel 4; the first season aired over four nights in a row from October 31, 2011, to November 3, 2011, and the second season aired from August 20, 2013, to September 10, 2013. Although plots for a third series were suggested, Channel 4 canceled the show that year.