In the 2021 James Bond film, No Time to Die, Bond, played by Daniel Craig for the final time, re-enters the M.I.6 offices with the woman who has succeeded him, Nomi. As the two walk side by side, Nomi, played marvelously by Lashana Lynch, is addressed by her peers as “007.” “That must bother you,” she says, before walking ahead of him.
The film marked a new era for the James Bond franchise. Lynch, 36, is both the first woman and person of color to hold the title of 007. Her latest role, starring alongside Eddie Redmayne in the Peacock series The Day of the Jackal, exists in a world similar to that of Bond. Putting a modern spin on the 1973 blockbuster film, Eddie Redmayne plays an international assassin hunted down by Lynch, who, like 007, is an intelligence officer.
But Lynch has played more than just international spies; she found stardom in 2019 as the Marvel Universe’s Maria Rambeau, sang and danced as Miss Honey in Netflix’s 2022 Matilda the Musical, transformed into a West African warrior alongside Viola Davis in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, and played Bob Marley’s wife, Rita, in the 2024 biopic One Love.
Lynch, who was the youngest child in a big Jamaican family, grew up in West London. She knew she wanted to become an actress since the age of five, fondly remembering the day in primary school when a Black female teacher saw her talent and decided to give her singing lessons. It “helped me develop my voice, develop my vibrato,” she says.
After graduating high school, in 2006, she decided to chase her dreams. “I took a gap year, worked in retail, and got some life experience,” she says, using the opportunity to save money before enrolling in local drama classes.
“That’s when I auditioned for drama school and got into the one that I wanted,” she says, referring to London’s Arts Educational Schools (ArtsEd), whose alumni include Julie Andrews. “That felt really like an amazing start,” she reflects, enrolling in the class of 2010.
Success didn’t happen overnight. Her first decade in Hollywood was marked by smaller projects, from the 2013 British film Fast Girls to Shonda Rhimes’s 2017 ABC series Still Star-Crossed. Yet, 12 years after graduating from ArtsEd, at the 2022 BAFTAs, Lynch would take home the prestigious EE Rising Star Award—just months after wrapping The Woman King.
“[Prince-Bythewood’s] first film, Love and Basketball, is one of my favorite films,” Lynch tells me. “It helped me to see myself as a young Black girl in London.” So when Prince-Bythewood reached out to see if Lynch was interested in joining her next project, Lynch was stunned.
“I was so taken aback by the fact that she knew who I was and knew my work, and had thought of me for this role,” says Lynch. “And when a director that you love and respect says that they have written a role for you or developed a role for you, it’s a dream come true.”
Now Lynch is using her platform to make sure younger generations are able to see themselves in the films and television they watch. She and Redmayne doubled as executive producers on The Day of the Jackal. “It allowed us the privilege to be part of conversations that help move the needle forwards, help amplify narratives that deserve it, namely female narratives, and it gives us a real opportunity to talk about how expansive TV can be these days,” says Lynch.
The show is an example of how inclusion and bringing stories into the 21st century doesn’t have to mean erasing them entirely. “I believe that it’s important to respect and honor the original [film], so that fans of the original have something to recognize,” she explains. “But also those who maybe weren’t even born at that time, like myself, have something modern-day to relate to and to feel a part of like this is a new movement now.”
Looking toward the future, Lynch says, “I want to be able to collect different experiences from different places that are going to help me grow as a person.” That list of experiences will soon include motherhood. The actress announced last month that she is pregnant and has since been making headlines for her red-carpet maternity style while promoting the new series.
She’s also starring in next year’s video game Directive 8020, reflecting that she’s reached a place in her career where she’s able to think carefully about which jobs she really wants to do. This newfound artistic freedom and agency, she tells me, allows her to “carve out a little space for myself in everything that I choose to lend my name to.”
The Day of the Jackal premieres on November 14 on Peacock
Zack Hauptman is a senior at Yale University
