“Life is not fair—and it’s what you make of it that matters most.” She speaks out for black women to dream.
Mojisola Elufowoju says it calmly, like a black woman who’s lived it enough times to believe it.
She didn’t grow up imagining herself as a theatre director. She was told it wasn’t for people like her, Black, female, Nigerian. So she became a lawyer instead. It was safer, more respectable, the choice her immigrant parents could understand.
But some dreams don’t stay quiet.
It wasn’t until her 40s that she permitted herself to return to her true calling.
“You get to a point in life where you think, life’s too short. You don’t need to please anyone anymore,” she says.
Today, she founded Utopia Theatre, one of the UK’s most culturally dynamic African and diaspora storytelling platforms.
Born in Nigeria and raised in the UK, Mojisola grew up between two worlds.
“You learn to speak two languages,” she says—“not just Yoruba and English, but the more subtle dialects of cultural navigation: when to blend in, when to code-switch, and eventually, when to refuse either.”
Her story unfolds at the rich and sometimes painful intersection of race, gender, heritage, and ambition. Her dual identity, Nigerian and British, has never been a backdrop. It’s been the stage itself.
Growing up in the UK, she learned quickly that belonging was conditional. She remembers the unspoken rules: be grateful, be quiet, be twice as good.
“To even get called for an interview,” she explains, “I had to be 50% more prepared, 50% more qualified. That’s the price of entry.”
But instead of breaking her, that pressure became fuel.
“You walk into the room, and you must leave them thinking: I was wrong about Black people. I was wrong about women. I was wrong about Africa. That’s my goal.”
Pressure, Resistance, Reinvention
British theatre is notoriously white and male. Even now, only a small fraction of artistic leadership roles are held by Black women.
“People don’t think you can do it,” she says plainly. “Especially if you’re Black. Especially if you’re a woman. Especially if you’re older.”
When she entered drama school in her 40s, Mojisola was often the only Black woman in the room and always the eldest.
“They almost made it clear: You’ve wasted your time. You’re not going to make it in this industry.”
But one lecturer, Claire Hines, changed everything.
“She said: If you’re an artist, make art. Don’t wait for permission.”
That seed became Utopia Theatre, funded with the last portion of Mojisola’s student loan, rehearsed in public parks, and staged in borrowed rooms. A theatre born not of privilege, but of necessity and defiance.
At Utopia Theatre, the stories are different. Rooted in Yoruba oral traditions, diasporic themes, and the pulse of contemporary Britain, her work creates space for those who rarely see themselves on stage except as caricatures.
“African stories have depth, rhythm, mythology,” she says. “I’m not interested in retelling the same colonial tropes. I want to show that our stories belong in the centre.”
Whether adapting Yoruba folk tales in Sheffield or staging contemporary African dramas for UK audiences, Mojisola’s vision of “utopia” is one where no one has to leave parts of themselves behind at the door.
Breaking Barriers, Building Legacy of women
Mojisola doesn’t pretend it’s been easy.
“I’ve had to work twice as hard,” she says. “There are things men, especially white men, get away with in rehearsal rooms that would never be accepted from me. But eventually, your reputation speaks. They know: she’s not here to take nonsense.”
Leadership, for her, is not just an act of resistance; it’s a familial legacy.
“I’m the first of 23 children,” she says. “In a Nigerian household, that means leadership from birth. You’re running that house. You’re in charge. You don’t wait to be asked.”
She brings that same force to her creative leadership: firm, visionary, unapologetic, and deeply generational.
“I’m not building this for me alone. I’m doing this so my grandchildren can walk into spaces without having to prove their humanity.”
Belonging, Displacement, and Power
In Mojisola’s work, the question of belonging is not abstract, it’s visceral.
What does it mean to belong in a land that constantly questions your legitimacy?
What does it mean to be from here and there?
“You never really stop feeling like you’re in-between,” she says. “But I’ve learned that in-between is not a weakness—it’s a vantage point. I can see both sides. I can translate. I can challenge both cultures.”
That ability—the “double vision” of diaspora has become her greatest strength. It allows her to straddle tradition and innovation, ancestral wisdom and modern activism, with confidence.
And to young women growing up between worlds, Mojisola offers this:
“You bring a rare blend to every room. Don’t shrink it. Use it.”
Despite the barriers, Mojisola’s message is radical in its optimism.
“You can be anything,” she says, but not without grit, resilience, and relentless self-belief. “The world isn’t fair. But someone has to make it fairer. Someone has to hold the baton until the next runner builds their momentum.”
And that’s the work. Legacy isn’t just about what you leave behind; it’s about who you lift as you rise.
“If I go into a room and overperform, turn up earlier, prepare harder, it’s not just for me. It’s for the girl who comes after me. I want her to walk into that space and find respect already waiting.”
Dream With Your Whole Self
Mojisola Elufowoju is not just rewriting British theatre. She’s reshaping the narrative of who belongs in it.
Black. Woman. Nigerian. British. Leader. Artist. Mother. Director. Dreamer.
No single label can contain her. And that’s the point.
To every young Black girl trying to find her place in a Western world that wasn’t built with her in mind, Mojisola says:
Dream with your whole self. Because the world needs every part of you. You don’t need permission to lead.
You don’t need to ask to belong.
You already do.
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