Vivian Oparah | Performer

Vivian Oparah | Performer

There’s an element of staying true to your dreams in actor Vivian Oparah’s story. Despite being a creative child, who expressed her imagination through writing stories and poetry and performing in the occasional school play, Vivian was heading towards studying neuroscience at university. Although this would offer a safe income, it simply wasn’t chiming with her impulse for storytelling. So, Vivian deferred university, choosing instead to attend a two-week National Youth Theatre summer course, which sent her out on open calls and, in turn, landed her an agent.

Her first role was as a lead in Doctor Who spin-off Class (2016), followed by The Rebel (2017), and episodes of I May Destroy You (2020) and Intelligence (2021). She then took a sojourn from the industry to concentrate on music, her other major passion, with this serving to stimulate her storytelling neurons. Vivian returned to acting in 2023, turning heads with her engaging performances in the romantic comedy film Rye Lane, which premiered at Sundance, and the Sky Max thriller miniseries Then You Run.

In their own words...

“Things have changed for me in a tangible and spiritual way. I feel really young again. Things that I had thought about in my head have started to materialise, and I’m having to set new goals because I keep achieving the old ones... It does feel like it’s been a breakthrough year. New beginnings, new chapters.”

“I was really proud of Rye Lane and I think this is the first year I can say I have contemporaries in the industry. I got into acting by a kind of a backdoor, I didn’t have a cohort of people I went to drama school with or teachers that I could call up and speak to. So, I’d like to expand my network and feel more connected [through BAFTA Breakthrough]. But it feels good right now.”

Vivian has recently finished filming a new series Dead Hot for Amazon Prime, and is developing and writing her own stories.

Vivian’s breakthrough credit is the scripted film Rye Lane

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