Babou Ceesay is a BAFTA-nominated actor from Gambia. You may have seen him in BBC film Damiola, Our Loved Boy or the Star Wars film Rogue One, or Guerilla, the TV mini-series about British black power movements. He plays the lead in an upcoming Sky drama Wolfe, created by Paul Abbott (Autumn 2021). We talked about how Babou has dealt with the several twists and turns in his life – from barely getting by on poverty wages as a cleaner in London, to being recruited by Deloitte and working in the city, to biting the bullet and auditioning for drama school. The man is a natural born storyteller. En ..read more

Nicholas Hatton was born in France and now lives in Bristol. He is the CEO of the 3million – the largest campaign organisation for EU citizens in the UK, which he was instrumental in founding after the 2016 Brexit referendum   We talked over zoom during lockdown about getting by in the UK without speaking the language, being lucky enough to find your calling in life and what the next post-Brexit battles will be for EU citizens living here.    I hope you enjoy our conversation.    * Find out more about the 3million   I am an Immigrant is and ice& ..read more

Agnes is 23 years old and recently completed a Physics degree at Manchester University. She is from Gambia and has lived in the UK since she was 4. We talk about Gambia’s weird borders, growing up in Dagenham when the British National Party had a big presence there and what happened when, despite aceing her A-Level exams and being offered places at four Russel Group universities, she found that her visa status scuppered everything.   I am an Immigrant is and ice&fire theatre production hosted by Christine Bacon, edited by Helen Clapp. Cover art by Ada Jusic.   We love h ..read more

Francisco Gomez is a veterinary surgeon from Spain who lives in a small town in Derbyshire. He came to the UK in the early 2000s thinking, like many of us do: I’ll stay six months or so, do a bit of travelling, have a little adventure. But life happened, love happened, jobs were offered, and he stayed. We talked about what it’s like to be the only immigrant in the village, how stressful a vet’s life can be, and what happened when his English colleagues found out he routinely had a glass of wine with his lunch each day.   “My accent is my accent, it's part of my identity. I don't want to l ..read more

Siobhán McSweeney is an actor from County Cork, Ireland, who now lives in London. She is perhaps best known as Sister Michael in Channel 4’s Derry Girls and more recently as the host on The Great Pottery Throw Down.   We had a lovely chat about the London-Irish experience, how Siobhán found her tribe, and about the huge gaps in the majority of British people’s knowledge of Ireland. * 'I learned quickly to stop talking to people at bus stops and it took me ages to not feel dreadfully rude that I wasn't even acknowledging the other person at the bus stop.' * I am an Immigrant is an ice& ..read more