Baroness Floella Benjamin
Pioneering Actor, Writer and Campaigner .
Speaker profile
Baroness Floella Benjamin is a pioneering actor, writer and campaigner who came to England in 1960 at the age of ten as part of the Windrush children. Experiencing a massive culture shock, Floella found Britain cold and unwelcoming, even violent and bleak, she had to quickly learn at an early age to live in two cultures to survive. Unable to continue school past the age of 16 due to financial hardship, Floella entered the school of life. As a prominent advocate for diversity and inclusion with over 40 years of experience, Floella is a highly articulate speaker on representation with an abundance of fascinating personal anecdotes to share.
Whilst working at a bank, Floella attended night school for three years to obtain her A-levels, following her mother’s advice about needing an education to progress in life. Although she was exceptionally good at her job and had the potential to become a bank manager, she quickly realised during that period in Britain it was an unrealistic dream. With some trepidation, Floella decided to audition to go on a national tour of a hit musical, asking the bank to keep her job as a precaution. She never looked back, going on to appear in several stage musicals including Black Mikado and Jesus Christ Superstar whilst also seeking TV work. After repeated attempts, she finally got her big break in the drama Within These Walls with Googie Withers. This was the perfect role to kickstart her TV career, opening up the opportunity to receive continuous roles in dramas, in addition to collaborating with leading directors and producers.
During the same period, Floella appeared in Playschool and continued to present the show for 12 years. In 1977 after staring in Black Joy she was invited to the Cannes Film Festival, and in 1987 she decided to open her own television company. Immediately, she was commissioned to make Tree House by Channel 4, which featured prominent guests such as Roger McGough, Linda Bellingham, Bill Oddie and Rick Wakeman. Floella is especially proud of her book Coming to England which won a Royal Television Society Award in 2004, in the same year she also received a BAFTA. In recognition of her 40 years of charitable work she received a Damehood from Prince Charles and was elevated to Baroness in 2010. Floella has also released her biography, What Are You Doing Here?, which was awarded Best Biography, Memoir or Autobiography by a Parliamentarian in the Parliamentary Book Awards 2022. Most recently, in May 2024, it was announced that Baroness Floella Benjamin would be the recipient of the BAFTA Fellowship for Exceptional Contributions to Television.
Very passionate about inspiring children and young people, she uses programmes such as Touching Success to help young children meet role models, in addition to encouraging publishers to show more representation in children’s books. Having campaigned on behalf of children for 25 years and lobbied three prime ministers, Floella finally succeeded in getting a minister for children.