Adjoa Andoh

Adjoa Andoh (born 14 January 1963) is a British film, television, stage and radio actress. She is known on the UK stage for lead roles at the RSC, the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and the Almeida Theatre, and is a familiar face on British television (notably in two series of Doctor Who as companion Martha's mother Francine Jones, 90 episodes of the BBC's long-running medical drama Casualty as Staff Nurse (later Sister) Colette Griffiths and a year in the BBC's EastEnders). Andoh is the voice of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency; she won "Audio Book of the Year" for Tea Time for the Traditionally Built.

She made her Hollywood debut in Autumn 2009 starring as Nelson Mandela's Chief of Staff Brenda Mazibuko alongside Morgan Freeman as Mandela in Clint Eastwood's Invictus.

Career

Andoh's television credits include Casualty (she played Colette Griffiths (née Kierney) from 2000 until 2003), Jonathan Creek, EastEnders (where she played jazz singer Karen, the lodger of Rachel Kominski in 1991), and The Tomorrow People (where she played Amanda James in the story The Rameses Connection in 1995).

She has appeared in Doctor Who a number of times: in 2006 as Sister Jatt in series 2 episode "New Earth" and as Nurse Albertine in the audio drama Year of the Pig. In 2007, she appeared in several episodes of the third series ("Smith and Jones", "The Lazarus Experiment", "42", "The Sound of Drums", and "Last of the Time Lords") as Francine Jones, the mother of Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). She reprised her role in the finale of series 4 ("The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End").

Andoh's other television work includes playing the head of M.I.9 in Series 3 to Series 5 of M.I. High and D.C.I. Ford in Missing.

She is also known for narrating the audio book versions of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of detective novels and Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch Series trilogy (although not all of the US editions), as well as Julia Jarman's children's books, The Jessame Stories and More Jessame Stories. Her career in audio dramas has included the Voice of Planet B in Planet B on BBC Radio 7. In 2004, she was cast in the video game Fable.

Andoh also appeared in Noel Clarke's 2008 film Adulthood as the mother of Clarke's character, Sam Peel.

She can be seen in cinemas as Chief of Staff Brenda Maziubo opposite Morgan Freeman's Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood's Invictus.^[1] The film tells of how Mandela brought the Afrikaner population on side for Project Rainbow Nation through his support and inspiration for the 1995 World Cup-winning South African Springbok rugby union team, and his moving relationship with team captain Francois Pienaar, played by Matt Damon. Andoh describes the filming experience as extremely positive, saying that it was unlike any set she had ever filmed on.^[2]

Theatrical work

Andoh has worked extensively in the theatre. Her credits include His Dark Materials, Stuff Happens and The Revenger's Tragedy at the National Theatre; A Streetcar Named Desire (National Theatre Studio); Tamburlaine and The Odyssey (RSC); Sugar Mummies and Breath Boom (Royal Court); Blood Wedding (Almeida); Nights at the Circus, The Dispute and Pericles (Lyric Hammersmith); Purgatorio (Arcola); The Vagina Monologues (Criterion); Starstruck (Tricycle) and In The Red and Brown Water (Young Vic).

Personal life

In October 2009 Andoh was licensed as a Reader (a lay preacher) in the Church of England.^[3][4]

Filmography

Film

Television

Selected radio

References

External links

• Adjoa Andoh at the Internet Movie Database