Adjoa Andoh



Adjoa Andoh (born 14 January 1963) is a British film, television, stage and radio actress of Ghanaian descent. Andoh is known on the UK stage for lead roles at the RSC, the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and the Almeida Theatre, and is a familiar face on British television (notably in two series of Doctor Who as companion Martha's mother Francine Jones, 90 episodes of the BBC's long-running medical drama Casualty as Sister Collette Griffiths and a year in the BBC's EastEnders). Andoh is the voice of Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency; she won "Audio Book of the Year" for Tea Time for the Traditionally Built.

She made her Hollywood debut in Autumn 2009 starring as Nelson Mandela's Chief of Staff Brenda Mazikubo alongside Morgan Freeman as Mandela in Clint Eastwood's Invictus.

==Career [edit] == Andoh's television credits include Casualty (she played Colette Griffiths from 2000 until 2002), Jonathan Creek, EastEnders (where she played jazz singer Karen, the lodger of Rachel Kominski in 1991), and The Tomorrow People (where she played Amanda James in the story The Rameses Connection in 1995).

She has appeared in Doctor Who a number of times: in 2006 as Sister Jatt in series 2 episode "New Earth" and as Nurse Albertine in the audio drama Year of the Pig. In 2007, she appeared in several episodes of the third series ("Smith and Jones", "The Lazarus Experiment", "42", "The Sound of Drums", and "The Last of the Time Lords") as Francine Jones, the mother of Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman). She reprised her role in the finale of series 4 ("The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End").

Andoh's other television work includes playing the head of M.I.9 in one episode of M.I. High and D.C.I. Ford in Missing.

Andoh is also known for narrating the audio book versions of Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series of detective novels, as well as Julia Jarman's children's books, The Jessame Stories and More Jessame Stories. Her career in audio dramas has included the Voice of Planet B in "Planet B" on BBC Radio 7. In 2004, she was cast in the video game Fable.

She also appeared in Noel Clarke's film Adulthood as the mother of Clarke's character, Sam Peel.

She can be seen in cinemas as Chief of Staff Brenda Maziubo opposite Morgan Freeman's Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood's Invictus. The film tells of how Mandela brought the Afrikaner population on side for Project Rainbow Nation through his support and inspiration for the World Cup-winning 1995 South African Springbok Team, and his moving relationship with Team Captain Francois Pienaar, played by Matt Damon. Andoh describes the filming experience as extremely positive, saying that it was unlike any set she'd ever filmed on.[2] ===Theatrical work [edit] === Andoh has worked extensively in the theatre. Her credits include His Dark Materials, Stuff Happens and The Revenger's Tragedy at the National Theatre; A Streetcar Named Desire (National Theatre Studio); Tamburlaine and The Odyssey (RSC); Sugar Mummies and Breath Boom (Royal Court); Blood Wedding (Almeida); Nights at the Circus, The Dispute and Pericles (Lyric Hammersmith); Purgatorio (Arcola); The Vagina Monologues (Criterion); Starstruck(Tricycle)and In The Red and Brown Water (Young Vic) ==Personal life [edit] ==  In 2001 Andoh married Howard Cunnell, an author and university lecturer. They have three daughters.

In October 2009 Andoh was licensed as a Reader (a lay preacher) in the Church of England