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Micheal Ward
Jamaican-born English actor From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Micheal Ward (born 1996 or 1997) is a Jamaican-born British actor and former model.[2][3] Ward was awarded the 2020 BAFTA Rising Star Award.[4][5] He acted in the Sam Mendes drama Empire of Light (2022) for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.[6] He has also acted in the films Blue Story (2018), The Old Guard (2020), and Eddington (2025).[7]
On television, he acted in the BBC teen thriller series The A List (2018) and the Netflix crime drama series Top Boy (2019–2022).[2][8] He also acted in the BBC anthology film series Small Axe (2020) earning a nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.[9]
In July 2025, the Metropolitan Police announced that Ward had been charged with two counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault.[10]
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Early life
Micheal Ward was born in Spanish Town, Jamaica[11] to then 18-year-old mother Keisha.[12][13] He has three sisters.[14] His father was killed in a car crash when Micheal was two years old.[15]
Ward then moved to Hackney, East London, with his mother and sister at the age of four, with the help of his aunt and uncle who ran a Caribbean restaurant in Chadwell Heath.[15] The family later moved to Romford.[16] He attended Chadwell Heath Academy and then studied performing arts at Epping Forest College after dropping out of sixth form.[2][17] He worked delivering food for his aunt’s restaurant as a teenager and then later worked at a bookmakers shop.[18][19]
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Career
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2016–2018: Modeling and early roles
Ward began his career while he was at college when he signed with the talent agency.[17] Through the agency, he landed roles in music videos for artists such as Lily Allen and Tom Walker.[20] At the age of seventeen, Ward won the Face of JD Sports modelling competition.[21] He has since modelled a number of brands and was handpicked by Virgil Abloh to model for Louis Vuitton's AW20 menswear campaign in August 2020.[22] Ward made his film debut in Brotherhood in 2016.[23] He starred in the first series of the teen thriller The A List on BBC iPlayer in 2018[24] and reprised his role for its second series on Netflix.
2019–2022: Top Boy and other work
Ward's breakout year came in 2019, when he starred as Jamie in Netflix's revival and third series of Top Boy.[25] He also appeared in a leading role in the film Blue Story in the same year.[26] The film received critical acclaim, and Ward won the BAFTA Rising Star Award for his performance.[27] Ward appeared in Steve McQueen's Small Axe: Lovers Rock in 2020, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.[28][9]
Ward starred alongside Olivia Colman, Colin Firth and Tanya Moodie in Sam Mendes' 2022 film Empire of Light.[29][30] The film was released in the USA in December 2022, with the release in the UK in January 2023. In January 2023 it was announced that Ward was included on the longlist in the best supporting actor category for the 76th British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards.[31] In December 2022, he was cast in Jeymes Samuel's The Book of Clarence.[32]
2023–present
He appeared alongside Bill Nighy in the 2024 film The Beautiful Game.[33] In 2025 he acted in the Ari Aster directed satirical western Eddington.[34]
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Personal life
Ward is an Arsenal fan.[35] He went to school with English professional footballer Rhian Brewster.[36] Ward was named in Forbes' 30 under 30 list in 2020.[37] Ward became a British citizen in 2015.[12]
Rape and sexual assault charges
On 25 July 2025, the Metropolitan Police announced that Ward was charged with two counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault. It was reported the offences occurred in January 2023, and were committed against one woman.[38]
Filmography
Film
Television
Music videos
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Awards and nominations
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See also
References
External links
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