‘THE FACT I’M ALLOWED TO HAVE THIS CONVERSATION WITHOUT FEAR OF REPERCUSSION… THAT’S MASSIVE’

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Turn on the television and the actors you’re likely to see in major roles will fit a very specific demographic: white, male, and of a fairly well-to-do background, even if the characters they’re playing are not. Instead of accepting this issue as fact, the actor David Mumeni is trying to change it.

Mumeni had what might be called humble beginnings: born and raised in north-west London, he’s the son of a mechanic and a homemaker, and attended what he says was a “pretty rough” local school. Among his classmates, it was unusual to aspire to be an actor, and the explanation for Mumeni’s career path was his flair for drama mixed with luck. He managed to get into various youth theatre programmes during his teenage years, including the Artists Theatre School, where he was introduced to the founder, the actress Amanda Redman. “Amanda offered to privately tutor me over the next year, and she did, for free,” Mumeni says. “I ended up getting into Drama Centre, and she gave me £1,000 towards