Ten years ago, Michaela Coel was a celibate, ultra-religious Pentecostal Christian who wept when her friends got tattoos and begged them to believe in Jesus. Now she's one of the biggest rising stars in television, creating and starring in Chewing Gum, the BAFTA award-winning Netflix and E4 comedy described by the New York Times as one of the best TV shows of 2016.
Losing your faith isn't exactly a typical route to stardom, but Coel is far from your typical comedy showrunner. She started off by writing and performing poems about Jesus, before abandoning religion at drama school and penning Chewing Gum Dreams, a one-woman play about growing up in public housing. Her performance electrified audiences in fringe theater, and Coel was asked to develop the idea for television. The result, Chewing Gum, is a filthily inventive, bubblegum-bright vision of inner city London that bypasses all the usual TV cliches about working class life and female sexuality.
Read more and watch our interview with Michaela on Broadly
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