At the lowest point in his career, Ncuti Gatwa was penniless and homeless, borrowing from pals to get to auditions, but five years ago things changed when he landed the role of free-spirited student Eric Effiong in Sex Education
Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa may be pulling in a galaxy-sized income but he still panics about being poor.
The Scottish star, who came to Britain from Rwanda as a two-year-old refugee, says he struggled to make ends meet before his break in the 2019 Netflix hit Sex Education.
And even after bagging one of the most coveted jobs in TV as the rakish Time Lord, he says he constantly checks if he has food in the fridge. On top of his previous earnings, the role boosted Ncuti, 31, into millionaire status – but he admits: “I still wake up and check my bank balance, or I check if there’s food in my fridge. That’s the fuel that drives me – stay booked and busy.”
At the lowest point in his career, Ncuti was penniless and homeless, borrowing from pals to get to auditions. But five years ago he landed the role of free-spirited student Eric Effiong in Sex Education, which ran for four seasons – leading to him being cast as the 15th incarnation of The Doctor in the cult BBC series.
He told Sirius XM: “When you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, you remember that – it inspires you to keep booking more jobs. It’s all very well for me to sit here in my lovely shirts and say the hard times are what fuelled me. But the hard times are hard times – and actors all over know that story. It makes the good times even sweeter.”
Ncuti, who also had a part in 2023’s Barbie movie, is set to be the highest-earning Doctor so far after the BBC teamed up with Disney Plus to take it global. In 2022 his company Gemini Moon showed his own stake worth more than £700,000.
