Tiwa Lade

Tiwa Lade is a British-Nigerian actor and writer.

After training as an actor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, Tiwa began writing for stage. Her debut play, RUSH, was developed and performed in New York, Lagos and London before she adapted it for screen. The screenplay was shortlisted for the Neal Street Productions Screenwriting Bursary, reached the top 2% of the BBC Writersroom, and led to her selection for Channel 4 Screenwriting. Her play Small Talk. was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2024.

In 2021, Tiwa was awarded the BBC Felix Dexter Bursary. She has since written for CBBC’s Phoenix Rise and worked in the writers’ room for the second series of ITVX’s Tell Me Everything.

Tiwa’s writing is drawn to complicated families, messy relationships and characters trying, and often failing, to maintain the version of themselves they present to the world. Her work blends humour with emotional honesty, finding comedy in uncomfortable situations and warmth in unexpected places. She is currently developing original projects across television and film, and publishes personal essays on Substack at @thetiwalade.

Alongside her writing, Tiwa continues to work extensively as an actor. Recent credits include An Ideal Husband at the Lyric Hammersmith, A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Shakespeare’s Globe and Headlong, Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, BBC’s Black Ops and My Father’s Fable at the Bush Theatre, for which she won Best Female Lead at the Black British Theatre Awards.