Heather Agyepong

Heather Agyepong (born 1990) is a British-Ghanaian photographer, visual artist and actor, living in London.

Early life and education Agyepong was born and raised in London and is of Ghanaian heritage. Her mother moved to England from Ghana in her teenage years. She earned a National Diploma in Performing Arts from City of Westminster College; a BSc in Applied Psychology from the University of Kent; and an MA in Photography & Urban Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London.

Career Agyepong is a multidisciplinary artist who has worked in photography, visual art, theatre, film, and television.

Photography Agyepong's photography work has focused on mental health, activism and the African diaspora. It has been shown at the Tate Modern museum and the Centre for British Photography, and is part of the collections at the Mead Art Museum, the Autograph ABP, the Hyman Collection, the Centre National des Arts Plastiques, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

She has been awarded the Photo London x Nikon Emerging Photographer Award and the Photographers' Gallery New Talent Award. In it, Agyepong channels the American vaudeville performer Aida Overton Walker, by posing for a series of fake postcards. The work addresses physical and mental wellbeing.

Another of Agyepong's works is The Body Remembers, a solo performance that "explores how trauma lives in the body, particularly for Black British women across different generations." In a review in The Independent, Alice Saville gave the play four out of five stars, saying, "Agyepong gives glimpses of vulnerability before building her walls up again, higher than before."

In her acting, Agyepong cites Viola Davis and Michaela Coel as major influences.

Personal life On March 25, 2023, Agyepong was asked to leave the Museum of Modern Art in New York City after a disagreement with another museum attendee at an exhibition called Black Power Naps. The museum subsequently issued a public apology, saying it will increase efforts to "protect the experiences of Black visitors and visitors from Indigenous communities and communities of colour."

Group photography exhibitions Starting Something New: Recent Contemporary Art Acquisitions and Gifts, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts, 2019–2021 Wish You Were Here, Format Festival, Derby, 2021

Awards Jerwood Foundation New Work Fund award for The Body Remembers 2018: Nominated, South Bank Sky Arts Breakthrough Award 2021: Co-winner, with Joanne Coates, Jerwood/Photoworks Awards – a £15,000 award. 2025: Best Actress nomination for Shifters, Olivier Awards

Filmography Film YearTitleRoleNotes 2020 Sylvia Kemi Short film 2023 Snowfalls in the Summer Young Anita Short film 2024 Joy Kathy Gibson

Television YearTitleRoleNotes 2020 Enterprice Emily Episode: "When We Roar, Dem Run" 2022This Is Going to Hurt Rachel Miniseries; 1 episode 2023 The Power Ndudi Main cast

Theatre

Collections Agyepong's work is held in the following permanent collections: Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts National Portrait Gallery, London