Still, you’d be totally forgiven if you hadn’t heard of Coel before—especially in the U.S., where she’s not as well-known as she is in her native UK. Read on for a crash course in all things Coel.
Where is Michaela Coel from?
A London native born in 1987 to Ghanian immigrants, the 33-year-old Coel received her dramatic training in her hometown at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she was one of very few Black students before graduating in 2012. But even before that, she’d already made a name for herself at open mics throughout the city, taking the stage name Michaela the Poet.
What else has Michaela Coel been in?
Early in Coel’s career, she had guest roles on Law & Order: UK, the British crime drama Top Boy and Black Mirror. Before I May Destroy You, she starred in the 2016 UK miniseries The Aliens and the 2018 Netflix film Been So Long. Stateside, she first made a small splash when her British TV series Chewing Gum debuted on U.S. Netflix in 2016. The highly acclaimed, two-season sitcom has little in common with I May Destroy You and its darker themes of sexual assault and revenge. In fact, you can think of Chewing Gum more like Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag: Both offer a funny take on a young woman’s romantic life in London, and both were based on one-woman plays written by their creators. On Chewing Gum, Coel played a 24-year-old, religious-minded virgin eager to explore sex.
What is I May Destroy You about?
Again playing a young woman in London, Coel’s character this time around, named Arabella, experiences trauma when she’s sexually assaulted after a night on the town. The horrifying incident stirs up a cauldron of emotions for Arabella, who also must contend with a deadline to finish writing her second novel.
Is I May Destroy You based on a true story?
Since the series debuted, Coel has revealed that it was based in part on her own, real-life experience of being drugged and sexually assaulted. She told BBC’s Radio 1 Newsbeat in June 2020 that the first episode of I May Destroy You mirrors what really happened to her years ago while she was working on Chewing Gum: She went out for a drink with a friend to take a break from writing and woke up the next day experiencing flashbacks, ultimately realizing her drink had been spiked and she’d been assaulted. “The whole show deals with that moment where consent was stolen from you and you lost the moment where you had agency to make a decision,” Coel explained. “It’s been quite hard but cathartic.”
Michaela Coel and I May Destroy You were snubbed by the Golden Globes but not the SAG Awards
It’s obviously open to interpretation, but many critics and TV fans are claiming racism came into play with the Golden Globes nominations—especially considering that Spike Lee’s highly acclaimed film Da 5 Bloods, which likewise featured a predominantly Black cast, was similarly shut out of all major categories. Compounding the outrage over IMDY’s shutout is the fact that Emily in Paris—a fun but totally throwaway rom-com series that debuted last year on Netflix—shocked showbiz insiders by racking up Golden Globes nods for Best Comedy Series and Best Actress in a Comedy Series for its star, Lily Collins. A writer on Emily in Paris, Deborah Copaken, even penned her own op-ed this week lambasting the decision to nominate EIP and not IMDY. In addition to apologizing to Coel in a piece she wrote for The Guardian, Copaken added on Twitter, “Dear@MichaelaCoel: I was a writer on Emily in Paris, but your show was my favorite show since the dawn of TV and this is just wrong.” The good news is, IMDY was redeemed just a day after the Globes noms were revealed when Coel scored a SAG Awards nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, alongside such Hollywood heavyweights as Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington and The Queen’s Gambit’s Anya Taylor-Joy.
Where to Watch I May Destroy You
Next, watch Coel in one of the best British shows.
