Joan Iyiola is a British-Nigerian actress and producer based in London. She is best known for playing the title role in The Duchess of Malfi at the RSC.
Iyiola began her career at the RSC, playing in: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The White Devil, Arden of Faversham, The Roaring Girl, A Life of Galileo, Boris Godunov, The Orphan of Zhao. In 2013, Iyiola starred opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor as Pauline Lumumba in A Season in the Congo at The Young Vic, directed by Joe Wright. At the Gate Theatre, Iyiola played in The Convert, The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco and in the 2015 European Premiere of Eclipsed by Danai Gurira alongside Letitia Wright, her portrayal of Bessie was described as "Poignantly funny" and the play received several 5 star reviews, including TimeOut and WhatsOnStage. In 2016, Iyiola performed in They Drink it in the Congo for The Almeida theatre and Omeros at Shakespeare's Globe. In 2017, Omeros transferred from the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse to the Jazz festival in St Lucia, where it was performed with Joseph Marcell. In 2017, Iyiola starred in Boudica alongside Gina Mckee at Shakespeare's Globe. In 2018, Iyiola returned to the RSC to work with Director Maria Åberg, starring as The Duchess of Malfi in the Royal Shakespeare Company's 2018 summer season. Iyiola is the first black woman to play The Duchess in a major production. Her performance was met with praise from the British press, the Guardian's Michael Billington wrote, "Any production, however, pivots on the performance of the Duchess, and Iyiola – following a long line of distinguished RSC forbears including Peggy Ashcroft, Judi Dench and Harriet Walter – acquits herself excellently." Dominic Cavendish, chief theatre critic at the Telegraph commented, "Superb as the Duchess, Joan Iyiola is first fierce, proud and stylish". In The Times, Maxie Szalwinska highlighted, "Iyiola's raw-voiced final lament summons wider agonies of racial and feminist struggle. She dies, but still, somehow, she rises". In 2019, Iyiola returned to the Young Vic Theatre to play Ofentse in Tree, a show co-created by Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba. The show opened at the Manchester International Festival, before transferring for the London run. Whatsonstage said 'Iyiola is both wonderfully funny and fierce as the sister', whilst Nick Curtis in the Evening Standard, said, "Joan Iyiola. Hilarious".
