He had barely started his career when abuse left him mentally ill. But he went on to phenomenal success – and has just been made president of the UK’s leading drama school
This is the first time David Harewood has stepped through the doors of Rada’s London headquarters since he became its president in mid-February, and he’s immediately struck by flashbacks of his time as a student here. “Stunning memories,” he says. “Memories of my audition, the paintings … and that staircase will always be memorable because you walk in and go: ‘Oh my God, I’m at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts!’ It’s very evocative.”
Harewood, 58, is the first person of colour to lead Rada, and he follows in the footsteps of such luminaries as Kenneth Branagh, Richard Attenborough, Princess Diana and John Gielgud. It is the most prestigious of acting schools – some would say the luvviest of them all – and has been a training ground for everyone from Anthony Hopkins to Tom Hiddleston, Fiona Shaw to Phoebe Waller-Bridge. But like many British drama schools, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Rada issued an apology acknowledging that it “has been and currently is institutionally racist”.
