Quotes from Ncuti Gatwa

Costume really helps you feel in character.

The strangest place I have been recognised is a urinal. I was like: 'Why are you talking to me now?' That is the weirdest thing, but the most uncomfortable is when you are on the street and someone just grabs you.

You don't need to bow down to peer pressure or be comparing yourself.

I developed depression. But I never let people know how down I was feeling. That would have been another burden for my friends to take on. My mind became my biggest enemy.

It's very important to see a black gay teen represented.

It is important that we continue to keep telling stories from new perspectives and have proper representation on our screens, because it is educational and empowering.

There was one scene in which I wore a wig, full make-up and stilettos and thought, 'Oh my God, my family, all my friends in Tottenham! Nobody's ever seen me like this before... ' It was definitely a challenge but it helped me become braver as an actor.

In a small way, I'm driven by proving people wrong: because of the background I come from, I think a lot of people have doubted that I would get this far.

A couple of weeks before I started auditioning for 'Sex Education,' I was very convinced I was going to quit acting.

I used to be a really great dancer. I used to do it quite a lot and then I stopped. Now my body has forgotten all that training.

When I moved to Dunfermline, it was the first time I realised how different I looked to everyone else who grew up around me. That is where I learned about ignorance and hate. I think, for them, they had probably never seen a black person in their life.

Within church communities, within black communities, and within black church communities, gossip is thy friend. Gossip will be thy friend!

When people talk about diversity and inclusion, sometimes there's a bit of an eye-rolling mentality or ticking boxes. But I feel like that's kind of necessary at times, because the playing fields are not level in the first place.

I went to drama school so I had quite a regimented classical training, regimented process of analyzing a script. I'll go through the whole script and highlight everything my character says about me, and in another color I'll highlight what other characters say about me, and I'll highlight all the things I say about other characters.

I grew up in a working-class area, and I stood out - for my voice, my appearance, I did dance and things like that. But I always had faith in my charm.

I was a working-class kid in a middle-class environment. Fashion was my way of saying, 'You can tap me for this and tap me for that, but you can't deny I look good.'

I wish that I had seen myself more reflected on TV when I was growing up, and I think a lot of people feel that way.

Yeah, we were refugees coming to the U.K. and I definitely now view myself as a Rwandan Scotsman.

I was homeless.

I couldn't believe I was homeless and working in Harrods. How many people must be going through this in London?

I have faith, but I'm not the biggest fan of organised religion. There's a lot of hypocrites in church. A lot of hypocrites.

I would like to try to cap rent prices.

My first professional set was 2014, and it was for a show called 'Bob Servant' for BBC Scotland. I was working in theater for Dundee Rep Theatre doing 'Hecuba,' and I also got this other job, 'Bob Servant.' It was only three days filming.

I think there's quite a narrow representation of gay people on TV and I think that we need to push that. And I think that we need to allow for a lot more stories to be told.