19 Facts About Ncuti Gatwa

Mizero Ncuti Gatwa is a Rwandan and Scottish actor.

Ncuti Gatwa had supporting roles in the film Barbie and the television series Masters of the Air, and rose to further prominence as the fifteenth incarnation of the Doctor in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who since 2023.

Mizero Ncuti Gatwa was born in Nyarugenge, Kigali, Rwanda, on 15 October 1992.

Ncuti Gatwa's father, Tharcisse Gatwa, from Rwanda's Karongi District, is a journalist.

Ncuti Gatwa's family escaped from Rwanda during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and settled in Scotland.

Ncuti Gatwa attended Boroughmuir High School and Dunfermline High School before moving to Glasgow to study at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2013.

Around this time, Ncuti Gatwa was attacked by three strangers in the street who fractured his jaw; this was fixed with titanium.

Ncuti Gatwa had a brief role in the 2014 sitcom Bob Servant, which was set and filmed in Dundee.

In 2014, Ncuti Gatwa received a Commendation at the Ian Charleson Awards for his 2014 performance of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet at Home, Manchester.

Ncuti Gatwa played Demetrius in the 2016 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe directed by Emma Rice.

Ncuti Gatwa received praise for his portrayal of Eric from critics, particularly for how his character was not relegated to the cliche of "gay or black best friend slash sidekick stock character".

Ncuti Gatwa has earned numerous accolades for the role, including a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actor in Television in 2020, and three BAFTA Television Award nominations for Best Male Comedy Performance, one in 2020,2021 and 2022 consecutively.

Ncuti Gatwa performed an excerpt of Romeo and Juliet with Mei Mac at the 2023 Coronation Concert, and topped the Radio Times's TV 100 power list the same year.

In May 2022, it was announced that Ncuti Gatwa had been cast in Doctor Who as a new incarnation of the show's protagonist, the Doctor, succeeding Jodie Whittaker in the role.

Ncuti Gatwa was expected to take over the role in the third and final of the 2022 specials in October 2022, but the final Thirteenth Doctor story "The Power of the Doctor" revealed that Gatwa would play the Fifteenth Doctor, with David Tennant returning to play the Fourteenth Doctor.

Ncuti Gatwa debuted in "The Giggle", the third of the 60th anniversary specials, on 9 December 2023, and starred in his first full episode, "The Church on Ruby Road" on Christmas Day 2023, which was followed by the show's fourteenth series.

Many writers for The Independent called Ncuti Gatwa's acting "interstellar" and "mesmerising".

Naina Bajekal of Time magazine believed that Ncuti Gatwa was "bringing Doctor Who into a new era".

In November 2024, Gatwa appeared as Algernon Moncrieff in Max Webster's production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest in the Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre, opposite Hugh Skinner and Sharon D Clarke, running until January 2025.