Yusra Warsama | |
|---|---|
| Born | 9 July 1987 [1] Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates |
| Occupations | Writer, Director, Actress |
| Years active | 2011–present |
Yusra Warsama (born 9 July 1987) is a British playwright, theatre director, and stage, film and television actress.
Warsama was born in the United Arab Emirates to a Somali Islamic family displaced by the civil war in the country. As a young child her family moved from Abu Dhabi to England. She has a younger sister. She studied for a degree in criminology and sociology. She became a mother living in Manchester in her early twenties. [2] [3]
She became involved with the Contact Theatre in Manchester whilst a student. In 2015, she appeared at the Donmar Warehouse in James Graham's play The Vote , appearing alongside Judi Dench, amongst others. That year, a play she wrote based on female experience of genital mutilation, Rites, toured Great Britain. [2] [3]
In 2023, she wrote and directed Of All the Beautiful Things in the World a free-form adaptation of Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba which moved the setting from 20th century Andalusia, Spain to 21st century Moss Side in Manchester. [4] [5]
She was a writer on the triple-bill of short plays Everywhere with her short play Gestation; the plays united in their exploration of similar socio-political themes such as race and class, as well as gender-based prejudice and discrimination, and toured in 2025. [6]
She could be seen in Call the Midwife on BBC One in 2017, playing a Somali woman who underwent a traumatic childbirth after suffering genital mutilation as a child. [7] In 2019, she joined the cast for the second series of the Stephen King supernatural horror adaptation Castle Rock . [8] [9]
She appeared in Shane Meadows historical drama The Gallows Pole . [10] She could be seen in Swedish drama series Deliver Me on Netflix. [11]
In 2025, she had a leading role in Nadia Fall's film Brides , which premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. [12] In January 2026, she could be seen in the Amazon Prime Video crime thriller Steal alongside Sophie Turner. [13]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | The Vote | Hanni | TV movie |
| 2017 | Call the Midwife | Nadifa | 1 episode |
| 2019 | Cold Feet | Erica | 1 episode |
| 2019 | Castle Rock | Dr. Nadia | 10 episodes |
| 2023 | Unforgotten | Alaya Ali | 1 episode |
| 2023 | The Gallows Pole | Bathsheba | 3 episodes |
| 2024 | Deliver Me | Leila Ali | 5 episodes |
| 2025 | Brides | Khadija | Film |
| 2026 | Steal | Glasses |