Cast Detail: Gbemisola Ikumelo

Double BAFTA-nominee, Gbemisola Ikumelo was nominated in the ‘Female Performance in a Comedy Programme’ category for her role in Famalam (she also writes for the series) and the ‘Short Form Programme’ category for Brain in Gear, which she wrote, co-directed and starred in. Brain in Gear went on to win the ‘Short Form Programme’ award in 2020 and has been commissioned for a full series by BBC Two. Brain in Gear is a flat-share comedy where the nightmare tenants are the voices inside your head. The series follows Remi, a perfectly normal, if somewhat anxious single woman in her late twenties, trying her best to navigate the contradictory advice from her inner thoughts. The series will continue the story of Remi as she attempts to get on with her life... but otherwise normal tasks like going to work and hanging out are made near impossible by the constant interruptions of her two alter egos Boss Bitch Remi and Dark Remi. Gbemisola plays the role of all three Remi’s.

This summer Gbemiso

Double BAFTA-nominee, Gbemisola Ikumelo was nominated in the ‘Female Performance in a Comedy Programme’ category for her role in Famalam (she also writes for the series) and the ‘Short Form Programme’ category for Brain in Gear, which she wrote, co-directed and starred in. Brain in Gear went on to win the ‘Short Form Programme’ award in 2020 and has been commissioned for a full series by BBC Two. Brain in Gear is a flat-share comedy where the nightmare tenants are the voices inside your head. The series follows Remi, a perfectly normal, if somewhat anxious single woman in her late twenties, trying her best to navigate the contradictory advice from her inner thoughts. The series will continue the story of Remi as she attempts to get on with her life... but otherwise normal tasks like going to work and hanging out are made near impossible by the constant interruptions of her two alter egos Boss Bitch Remi and Dark Remi. Gbemisola plays the role of all three Remi’s.

This summer Gbemisola will shoot the co-lead in Black Ops for BBC Studios, a comedy series created by Gbemisola Ikumelo, Akemnji Ndifornyen, Joe Tucker and Lloyd Wolf. Gbemisola also writes on the show and serves as Executive Producer. Black Ops is the story of Dom and Kay, who join the Met Police in the hope of cleaning up their community but are unwittingly thrust into the murky world of deep cover infiltration as they become part of a powerful criminal enterprise. But for Dom and Kay it quickly becomes more of a fiasco than Donnie Brasco... Gbemisola will star alongside Hammed Animashaun.

Gbemisola is perhaps most recognisable from her role in BBC comedy sketch show Famalam which was nominated for an RTS Award for Best Scripted Comedy in 2019. Gbemisola was most recently seen in David Hare’s political thriller for BBC One, Roadkill alongside Hugh Laurie. Next up, she will star in Amazon’s remake of Penny Marshall's beloved film, A League of Their Own, about the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Gbemisola will appear alongside Abbi Jacobson and D'Arcy Carden. Shot in Southern California, it follows brand-new characters and begins with the formation of the league in 1943, as the players fight to keep it alive through close games, injuries, sexual awakenings and road trips across a rapidly changing U.S. Gbemisola’s additional television credits include Netflix’s Sex Educarion, ITV’s Broadchurch, and BBC Three’s Sunny D.

In 2019, she starred in Shola Amoo’s BIFA-winning The Last Tree, which premiered at Sundance Film Festival. The semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film set in the early 2000s centers on a young boy named Femi of Nigerian descent who’s being fostered by a white parent in Lincolnshire. The story starts when his biological mum (Gbemisola) picks him up and takes him to south London to live with her. The film follows his trials and tribulations as he tries to find his identity within a new culture in a multicultural London. Mark Kermode said of Gbemisola’s performance, “Gbemisola Ikumelo in particular steals most scenes she’s in.” The Last Tree is currently streaming on Netflix.

Gbemisola is also an accomplished theatre writer and performer, her play The Den received an Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre award and was supported by the Barbican. Her additional stage credits include;

Kwame Kwei-Armah’s Twelfth Night at the Young Vic, The New Nigerians at the Arcola Theatre, Rufus Norris’s Death and the King’s Horseman at The National and The Lion King national tour.

Gbemisola is the Founder and Artistic Director of Faith Drama Productions, a not-for-profit arts organization based in East London. Faith provides training, work experience and support for aspiring actors from different backgrounds. The productions often address issues including; gun/knife crime, drug abuse, poverty and the effect of gang culture in the community.