AFTER winning the EE Rising Star Award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTA) for his performance in Blue Story in 2020, British-Jamaican actor Micheal Ward says his career has gotten a massive boost.

“I feel like it’s allowed me to be in rooms where maybe I wouldn’t have been before. More experienced film-makers, people that have been in the industry for a long time doing great work, and stuff like that. It’s like, ‘Take a look at this guy and his wonderful work,’ so basically it makes it easier for my team to be able to have those conversations and then, hopefully, something fruitful comes from it. But, I think that’s definitely been a key benefit of it all and just being able to have conversations with key people,” Ward, 24, told the Jamaica Observer.

Ward — who was born on St John’s Road, Spanish Town — has been chalking up a steady stream of awards in the UK. He is most popularly known for his role as Jamie in popular series Top Boy.

Top Boy is a British television crime drama series. Created and written by Ronan Bennett, the series is set on a fictional summerhouse estate in the London borough of Hackney. The first series was broadcast on Channel 4 over four consecutive nights in late 2011. A second series began airing on Channel 4 in August 2013. Although storylines for a third series were proposed, the series was dropped by Channel 4 in 2014. Following interest from Canadian rapper Drake, it was announced in November 2017 that Netflix would revive the series and order a new season of 10 episodes. Another season comprising eight episodes was released in March of this year.

Ward said landing a major role in Top Boy was a lengthy process but he is, however, reaping the dividends of that gig.

“It’s globally recognised, so a platform like Netflix is pretty much in every country across the world. The process for Top Boy was very long but at the same time it was very beneficial in terms of my career, ’cause that was the first time I booked a leading role…I auditioned for my younger brother’s role first and they recalled me for that role and I did that, and [then] they asked if I could come in for the lead. I auditioned the next day and yeah — from there, the rest of history,” Ward explained.

Currently the young model-turned-actor isn’t working on any projects as he is awaiting the release of two more films which he just wrapped up.

“I’m not working on anything right now. I finished with two films in the last year which should be coming out later this year [to] early next year as well,” he said.