Nina Sosanya's mystery private life and 'not ageing' in 20 years

Among his star-studded line-up for tonight's chat show, Graham Norton welcomes actress Nina Sosanya.

The London-born actress has appeared on our screens more and more frequently in recent years, this week as the star of a new Channel 4 prison drama, Screw.

The dark comedy sees Nina go on her own journey as prison officer Leigh, as she reigns over the over an all-male prisoners in the "fresh" and "unpredictable" drama.

READ MORE:The Grange Hill and EastEnders star's actress girlfriend 9 years younger he first met when she was 5

In fact, Nina's TV career has gone from strength to strength over the last decade, and viewers will notably recognise her from a number of on-screen favourites, including her role as Hugh Grant's private secretary in Love Actually.

More recently, fans of His Dark Materials will recognise Nina as Elaine Parry - or Will's mum - from the TV adaptation of Philip Pullman's fantasy trilogy.

Anyone who watched the 2020 TV adaptation of Aldous Huxley's dystopian science fiction epic Brave New World will have enjoyed her imperious performance as leader of the “World State," Mustafa Mond.

And Killing Eve aficionados will remember Nina as Eve's colleague, fellow MI6 agent Jess.

Although Nina's character Jess is clearly an experienced agent and a dab hand at her job in the ser ies, we never find out much more about her, as she plays her cards close to her chest.

Funnily enough, Nina doesn't give much away about herself in real life either - the actor's personal life 'remains a mystery', according to WalesOnline.

The 52-year-old star has no website, no Twitter, no Instagram, and no Facebook page.

It is unknown if she is married, divorced, single, or currently with a partner.

Nina has never disclosed if she has children and it is not public knowledge where she lives and who she lives with.

From what little we do know about Nina's life, we know that her big career break came in Channel 4's 2001 comedy-drama Teachers.

After this her career path was a steady incline, and saw her play the lead character Kate McKenzie in the first three series of Last Tango in Halifax, and Lucy Freeman in the BBC comedy W1A.

In a 2016 interview, Nina spoke to the Guardian about her experience of addressing the 'the tensions of identity' in her on-screen roles, as the child of a white English mother and Nigerian father.

She said: "Growing up, I was always the minority in the room, even in my own immediate family, who were all white.

"So it became the norm for me to see white faces everywhere. I remember a young black woman once saying to me, ‘How do you see yourself?’ And I facetiously replied, 'With a mirror'.

"Understandably, she got quite angry. I’ve always referred to myself as ‘mixed race’, but apparently that’s not correct any more.

"But to call myself ‘black’ would be to deny my mother.

"There are so many boxes you can put yourself in and the part of the Venn diagram where they overlap is probably who you are.”

And in a 2020 interview, also on the Graham Norton show, Nina revealed to Graham that she didn't even know big Love Actually was when he asked about her role in the film.

Pulling up a picture of Nina in the classic Christmas film, the chat show host described her as "annoyingly untouched by time," comparing her to Hugh Grant who he insinuated has aged much less youthfully.

You can watch Screw online on My4 here.

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