Stage and screen stardom beckon for Bishop’s Stortford actor and former Herts and Essex High School girl Jessica Enemokwu
A former Herts and Essex High School student is hoping a prestigious place with the National Youth Theatre’s repertory company will be the springboard to a successful acting career.
As her third production as part of a cast of 16 new talents came to an end, Jessica Enemokwu joined young actors like BAFTA Rising Star nominee Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, the lead in Sky’s Gangs of London, as an alumna of the prestigious year-long programme.
The rep company was set up in 2012 by Paul Roseby, artistic director and chief executive officer of NYT, to provide intensive real-world experience to a select group of young performers and creatives.
Oscar winner and NYT alumna Dame Helen Mirren said: “The National Youth Theatre at this moment in time is incredibly important because the way my business is going, it’s the prerogative only of kids who have got money. It was my way in because we didn’t have money to send me to drama school.”
Other, recent former participants include Isabel Adamokah Young, who appears in Netflix hit Heartstopper, flagship AppleTV+ series Foundation and won Best Actress at the Black British Theatre Awards for her performance as Juliet at Regent’s Park Theatre; Shiv Jalota, a regular on EastEnders, who was the first global majority actor to play lead in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime; Seraphina Behm, who returns to the upcoming season of Netflix’s Top Boy; and Jenny Walser, who has a major role to the second season of Heartstopper.
Jessica, now 24, fought hard to join them, with a determination typical of her time at the Warwick Road secondary. The former deputy head girl tackled racial stereotyping among staff and students and is remembered as “a natural leader”.
She first applied to join the NYT when she was 17 but missed out on a place.
“It was disappointing, but at the same time it was my first audition for anything,” she said.
“It gave me some direction and the chance to go back to the drawing board, and by the time I got around to the next year, I felt a lot more confident.”
Theatretrain tutor and actress Carlyss Peer was instrumental in helping Jessica win a place when she was 18.
She had been part of the theatre school in Bishop’s Stortford since she was nine and Carlyss, who has appeared in Holby City and Grantchester, gave her extra coaching.
Jessica said: “That was the difference. The first year I did it alone, the second year I had her help.”
She also paid tribute to the impact of Caitlin Hayward, Herts and Essex High School’s head of drama, for her influence and inspiration.
When Jessica left the secondary, she went to Queen Mary University in London to study biochemistry. That was a commonsense move that pleased her parents, Roxanne and Manny, but with a back-up career in place, Jessica was still determined to tread the boards.
She said: “When I was younger I wanted to be a fashion designer or a supermodel and then I got into acting. It’s something I just couldn’t let go of, but I couldn’t see how to turn it into a career.”
Her stint in rep has changed that and she is now looking for an agent while hoping to break into television and film while continuing her stage roles and turning her hand to writing.
During her stint with the NYT rep company, she rehearsed and performed three very different plays and tackled diverse and challenging roles.
She was Leonato in an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End in February. Playwright Debris Stevenson injected aspects of a reality TV romance into the Bard’s much-loved comedy.
At the end of March, the cast changed gear for Gone Too Far!, a play by Bola Agbaje, directed by Monique Touko, who won Best Director at the Stage Debut Awards 2022 for Malindadzimu at the Hampstead Theatre.
Set in Peckham in south London, the comedy and tragedy tells the story of two young brothers, one born in London and the other recently arrived from Nigeria, who go to buy their overbearing mother some milk on the estate.
It explores racism and the struggle for identity, status and respect. Jessica won critical acclaim for her “fantastic [performance] as the hyperbolic mother”.
The final show was another change of pace with Jessica and her company colleagues staging a new version of Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy, Bakkhai.
The adaptation by Maisie Newman, this year’s recipient of the Bryan Forbes Director’s Bursary, is filled with electronic music and dance.
In the performances earlier in May at NYT Workshop Theatre, Jessica played blind prophet Tiresias.
She relished playing such diverse characters, united by a powerful stage presence, and said: “I’ve had such a good foundation now.”
Her rep experience also included a chance to talk to stage and screen star Daniel Kaluuya.
The 34-year-old English actor and writer, best known for his film roles in Get Out, Black Panther and Judas and the Black Messiah, has notched up an Oscar, two BAFTAs and a Golden Globe.
Jessica said: “He’s one of my biggest inspirations from the UK for how he has gone about his career.”
He not only acted in the television series Skins but also co-wrote some episodes.
Jessica hoped also to write the kind of characters she would like to play as a woman and as a woman of colour who relishes complex and challenging parts with hints of humour.
As she reflected on her experience with the rep company, she said: “I’ve made some fantastic connections and the opportunities that have come from it have been brilliant.
“I’m just so grateful to have been in this company, but I feel like my real rep journey doesn’t begin until the rep finishes.”
