What Do We Know About Michaela Coel’s Upcoming BBC Drama?

London local Michaela Coel rose to fame when she created and starred in the E4 comedy Chewing Gum (2015–17) – but she conquered the world with I May Destroy You (2020). A co-production between the BBC and HBO in the US, the series centred on Arabella (Coel), an emerging writer and Twitter star struggling to rebuild her life after being raped. Almost immediately hailed as a modern masterpiece, for the 12-part series the writer-actor-director bagged the Best Actress TV BAFTA and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing, and also became the first Black woman to win the Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special.

Since then, Coel has starred in other people’s projects, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022) and The Christophers (2025), with Mother Mary – also starring Anne Hathaway and Hunter Schafer – set to launch later this year. So we were thrilled to see the news that Coel is back working on a production of her own five years after the success of I May Destroy You.

A new drama once again starring Coel, directed by her and also written by her, here’s everything we know so far about First Day on Earth.

Michaela Coel’s First Day On Earth: Plot, Cast, Release Date

With filming officially underway on First Day on Earth – and with the BBC, HBO and A24 backing the project – we know Michaela Coel’s comeback series is going to be a goodie. First teased by the BBC in August 2024, Coel described the series’ initial creation process as ‘a beautifully intimate experience’.

Written, starring and executive produced by Coel, the 10-part drama will be co-directed by Coel with Sam Miller, who she previously worked with on I May Destroy You. First Day on Earth was commissioned by the BBC’s director of drama Lindsay Salt, who cites I May Destroy You as ‘one of the reasons [she] wanted to join the BBC’, adding this new drama is ‘another unmissable series’ hingeing on ‘truly original, heartfelt, hilarious, poetic storytelling’.

Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You first aired in 2020. (BBC/HBO)

The Plot

Like Arabella in I May Destroy You, the protagonist of First Day on Earth is a writer. This time, however, she is a novelist – but British-Ghanaian Henri (Coel) is stuck in a writing rut, on the cusp of a ‘wild odyssey’, in Coel’s words.

Henri is running from everything: her deadlines, her life, her partner, herself – and that weird guy at her book talk. So when she is offered a job on a film in her ancestral homeland Ghana, the home of her estranged father, she seizes the opportunity to reconnect with both him and her heritage.

Once there, Henri finds herself submerged in an altogether different world, full of new friends, fresh joy and nuanced relationships. But it’s not everything she expected and Henri also finds secrets, lies, difficulty and denial, raising questions about herself, her heritage and her family.

She’s forced to reckon with her sense of identity, forging a new one that might leave her stronger – but might also break her.

Michaela Coel in I May Destroy You. (BBC/HBO)

The Cast

Michaela Coel will lead the series as Henri, joined by Thandiwe Newton as Anya, Maxine Peake as Helen, Danny Sapani as Ernest and Ncuti Gatwa as Darren – though no news just yet on the roles these characters will play in the plot.

Rising to fame in Interview with the Vampire (1994) and Beloved (1998), Newton doesn’t often star in TV dramas – though her role as DCI Roz Huntley in Line of Duty lives long in our memories – but she has made an exception for Coel. Gatwa meanwhile is best known for his TV roles: you’ll recognise him from Sex Education (2019–23), Doctor Who (2023–25) and Masters of the Air (2024).

The same is true of Peake, who has collated countless credits across her three decades acting – including, most recently, Irish Troubles drama Say Nothing (2024). Lastly, Danny Sapani has recently starred in Killing Eve (2020), Halo (2022–24) and The Diplomat (2023), having previously starred in Coel’s inaugural series Chewing Gum.

Release Date

Filming is officially underway, but that’s all we know about First Day on Earth’s production timeline so far. We anticipate a 2027 release.

Here in the UK, we expect the series to air on BBC One and iPlayer.

All 12 episodes of I May Destroy You are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

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