Adjoa Andoh is British actor and theater director, most known for her role as Lady Danbury on Netflix’s Bridgerton. But before she was Lady Danbury, Andoh initially studied law at University of the West of England for two years until she shifted to acting.

Andoh secured an equity card which allowed her to work. At the time, she was working for a socialist feminist theater company and found out she was pregnant. The company enabled a maternity policy that allowed her to tour until she was eight and a half months pregnant and then was able to take the baby with her after giving birth.

Andoh connects with her role as Lady Danbury in Netflix’s Bridgerton, emphasizing the character’s reliance on skill, wit, and determination. She aims to highlight the often-overlooked women—like aunts, friends, and mothers—who juggle multiple responsibilities, from supporting their families to maintaining careers, yet remain unsung heroes in society. She wants people to watch Danbury and not only feel encouraged but comforted as well as recognize that her character is not perfect. “I want her to not be one-note as I like it when she’s vulnerable, confused, when she feels undermined or second guessed because we live in all those spaces.”

Andoh views the strong black woman stereotype as a convenient way for people to claim that black women are fully capable of handling hardships by themselves. She argues that their struggles are made more extraordinary by their actual weaknesses, saying that their resilience comes despite not being inherently strong.

Andoh argues that although AI can be useful for data-driven projects, it cannot replicate the essential human elements of storytelling and connection. “Y’know that moment when you look at someone and you can see they’re about to cry or they’re fighting not to. Or you get that sense that someone’s looking at you. And I think there is something about that that is not AI-transferable. So I hold onto that.”

I want her to not be one-note as I like it when she’s vulnerable, confused, when she feels undermined or second guessed because we live in all those spaces.

― Adjoa Andoh