From Sofa Surfing in London to Doctor Who

Ncuti Gatwa is the son of parents who fled Rwanda. By his mid-twenties he was a working actor in London who had performed at Shakespeare's Globe and in the West End. After a US tour, he went four months without acting work. He had saved only what he could on an actor's wage, and his savings ran out. He was 25.

In his account for The Big Issue, he had paid a deposit and the first month's rent on a flat, but when he fell behind with the rent he had to give it up. A friend offered him a spare room rent-free, then changed his mind on the day he was due to move in. That was the moment, he recalled, when he realised he was homeless.

He survived by sofa surfing, relying mainly on two friends: one let him stay, and the other sent him money for food every week. He took temp jobs, including at Harrods, and kept up appearances. He said he was eating once a day and that he developed depression, adding that his mind became his biggest enemy.

The change came when he was cast in a production outside London. That led to an audition for a Netflix series starring Gillian Anderson, which became Sex Education. He wrote that his story would have been very different without it, and he called himself very lucky.

By the time of the May 2022 article, Sex Education had made him well known and he had just been named the new star of Doctor Who. The article also mentions his role in the film Barbie.