Wreck star Thaddea Graham on her extraordinary story, Doctor Who and joining the new series of Sex Education

In her short acting career, rising Northern Irish star Thaddea Graham has gone intergalactic, journeyed across mythical kingdoms and fought a killer disguised in a duck costume on a cruise ship. But the most extraordinary story is her own.

The 25-year-old has already starred in two big-budget Netflix shows and is filming the new series of its wildly popular drama Sex Education, as well as appearing in Doctor Who and Us for the BBC. All this packed into just five years – including a pandemic – since she graduated from drama school.

Fittingly, one of her first memories is of a film crew. She remembers as a toddler being in her high chair “with scrambled eggs and toastie soldiers” looking at a team behind the camera. The reason they were there? “I was one of the first international adoptees from China to Ireland. The BBC did a special.”

Born in China, she was left in the entrance to a building by her birth parents when she was three days old. “I never like to use the word abandoned; I don’t think I was abandoned. The choice to leave your child is a massive one, and I feel my birth parents left me in a place I would be found. And somebody did.”

She was taken to a police station, and during health checks they estimated her age. “My birthday is a good, calculated guess, but it’s still a guess,” she says.

At 13 months old she was adopted by her Northern Irish parents, who have kept the links with China, often returning for trips to the country of her birth. “They’re so supportive,” she says. She feels she has been given a “second chance at life… I don’t want to waste that chance.”

She adds, “Nothing is certain, you’ve got to take every day as it comes, and enjoy what you do. It’s too hard otherwise…” When I add that you only get one shot at life, she exclaims, “I got two! And I now have the luck of the Irish and the Chinese.”

Given the rocketing trajectory of her career, it is clear she has embraced her shot. In person, she is an extraordinarily positive, engaging interviewee; on a professional level, she stands out in pretty much everything she does.

Her latest show is Wreck on BBC Three, a six-part comedy horror with a dose of Eighties slasher movie thrown in. She plays Vivian, who is working on a cruise ship on which a killer dressed in a big duck costume is bumping off the staff. “It’s constantly fluctuating and keeps the audience guessing, that’s what I love about the show,” Graham says. “And there’s a lot of heart in it.”

She doesn’t personally enjoy horror as a genre – as a child her mum would even edit out the step-sisters when reading Cinderella – and watching Wreck she had to turn the volume down “even though I knew what happened”.

Wreck was shot in Belfast, largely in a disused tyre factory but also on an historic ship in the city’s Hamilton Dock. The SS Nomadic was the tender ship for the Titanic – in 1912 it ferried passengers from Cherbourg’s dock to the doomed liner which was moored in deeper water – and is the last White Star Line ship still in existence. Today it is one of the city’s tourist attractions as well as sought after a filming location.

Graham says she used to visit the area as a kid. “I think back to younger me wandering about here on a school trip and she could have never fathomed this.”

Belfast’s Waterfront Hall, where she went to Christmas concerts as a child and even saw Ed Sheeran “before he took off”, was also used as a location for Wreck. During filming she walked out of the wings and gazed in wonder at the auditorium she had sat in as a child. “It makes me quite emotional thinking about it,” she says.

Wreck has a diverse cast, and the story features on characters who are gay without making their sexuality a plot point. “Representation of any kind is so important,” Graham says. “There are genuinely people who want to make change but there is still a lot of performative action. It’s box-ticking, and I think we need to do more off screen, creating that diversity in the crews and the creative teams too.”

Representation has been hugely important for Graham. “I remember seeing The Ferryman [a play about the Troubles in Northern Ireland] in the West End, and they all sounded like me… on a West End stage! I thought, ‘Shit, maybe there is space for me,’ and it gives you encouragement that whoever you are, there is space and you should take it. If it’s not there, we need to make it.”

She wants to tell more Northern Irish stories “that aren’t just what everyone thinks of”. She adds: “I want to tell stories about the present day without negating what’s happened. The entire country has PTSD. There’s this shared trauma you can’t get away from, and can’t negate. But you have to move forwards. I want the young people behind me to have a better Northern Ireland than I did, and I had a better one than the people before me.”

Chronically shy as a child, Graham’s mum enrolled her in dance lessons to build her confidence. “It teaches you to be part of a team but it also teaches you how to lose with grace, because we did competitions. So much of my job now is taping things [for auditions] and most of it is no.”

She did a bit of performing in summer school growing up and was part of a TV show called Culture Club as well as participating in small films around the age of 13. She found music in secondary school, and plays a number of instruments.

“I don’t want to be famous with my acting or music. The idea of celebrity really scares me. For me it’s about connecting to people and telling stories and representation. With my music it’s personal, it’s a diary. It’s how I process life. I’d like to do little gigs with a guitar, no mic, just sharing stories. It goes back to Irish culture.”

After secondary school in Belfast, she was thinking of a degree in law or psychology but her mum suggested she would be happier in drama school. “I said, ‘No I can’t, that’s ridiculous. It happens in movies and books, this isn’t Mallory Towers or Fame.’” Yet her mum was serious, had done the research and it was a day off school, so they went to London.

Graham found herself out of place in most of the institutions she auditioned for – including the one where she was told off for taking off her jumper, which was “unbalancing” to the space, and later they pushed her, and all the other prospective students on their biggest fears, only allowing them to finish when they cried. Then she found ArtsEd, which was bright with music everywhere. “That was what I thought drama school would be like.”

She graduated in 2018, and her first role was in Curfew opposite Miranda Richardson. The following year she played a sword-wielding, horse-riding warrior in Netflix’s answer to Game of Thrones, The Letter for the King, then Kat, a busker travelling around Europe, in BBC One drama Us with Tom Hollander and Saskia Reeves. Then came The Irregulars, a fantastical take on Sherlock Holmes, again on Netflix, which was her first leading role.

When her agent first sent her the breakdown she thought it was a mistake. “I said, ‘I think you’ve sent this to the wrong person. It’s Victorian London, have you forgotten what I look like?’” Her agent told her “not to be daft” and she won the role of Bea, but helming a big show was tougher than she expected, and she began putting a lot of pressure on herself.

“I didn’t want to let anyone down. Extend that over a number of months. I wasn’t sleeping because I’d get home and try and prep for the next day. Then you’re up at ridiculous hours.”

By Christmas “it was unbearable, and I thought, ‘You have to do something. You can work hard but you have to work smart.”’ She discussed ways of looking after her mental health with her agent and she is now passionate about the subject, and putting measures in place to protect actors and crew.

Post-pandemic, Graham landed a significant role in Doctor Who, appearing across four episodes. “I knew the level of exposure and I knew how people cared about this show like nothing I’d known before.” When she first arrived on set, as well as the Tardis she was shown an alley where they’d put up fan art. “There was one beautiful artwork, and it said, ‘Doctor Who makes you feel like anything is possible.’ And I thought, ‘Holy shit, I’ve got to do this right.’”

It seems she nailed it - fans reacted well to her character of Bel, who had Graham’s Northern Irish accent, and she responded by singing the traditional song Belle of Belfast City and posting it online. Her time working with Jodie Whittaker, then the Doctor, was inspiring, she says. “She’s one of the people I look up most to in the industry. Not just because she’s an incredible actor but her as a person and that level of care and generosity. I want to be like Jodie Whittaker.”

Graham is so accommodating – we talk for close to an hour and a half – that I don’t find out until after the interview is over that she has missed a train she was due to catch. “Don’t worry, I’ll get the next one,” she says, smile still firmly in place.

That train was to Cardiff to resume filming on her latest role – she is one of the new arrivals at Moordale Secondary School for the fourth season of Sex Education on Netflix. She seems to be making a habit of getting involved with rabidly-loved shows.

“It’s so daunting, same as Doctor Who,” she admits, but “with Sex Education, there’s so much diversity and representation, and that show highlights so much that people don’t want to talk about. It’s a real honour to be part of and you’re aware that you’re hopefully doing something important.”

Graham has been welcomed by the show’s recurring stars including Asa Butterfield, Emma Mackay and Aimee Lou Wood. But she’s gutted not to have met Dan Levy, another newcomer in season four. He is famous for playing David on Schitt’s Creek, a show he co-created and whose gentle comedy really found an audience in lockdown. Graham’s such a fan she even brought Schitt’s Creek merch with her to the shoot.

“I have an ‘Eww David’ shirt, and I’d taken it to Cardiff. And I send those gifs all the time. I would have loved to meet him but didn’t get the chance.”

She did spend time though with Ncuti Gatwa, announced as the new Doctor in May. “He was so welcoming and kind. Especially for someone who had such a big announcement with so many eyes on him.” Did you give him any tips for the show? “He doesn’t need any tips from me,” the ever-amenable Graham laughs. “He’s just amazing; he’s going to fly.”

Wreck continues on BBC Three this Sunday with all episodes available now on iPlayer

Photography Natasha Pszenicki, Assisted by Monty Vann, Hair: Beni Cotovanu, Makeup: Caroline Barnes, Styling by Alice Hare.Clothing credits: Green Suit: Temperley London / Shirt: Troy London / Shoes: Jennifer Chamandi / Earrings and necklace: vintage Chanel at Susan Caplan

Grey pinstripe trousers and waistcoat: The Deck / Morning coat: Oliver Brown / Shirt: With Nothing Underneath / Shoes: Jennifer Chamandi / Earrings: vintage Chanel at Susan Caplan / Necklace and bracelet: Heavenly London.

Red stripe shirt: With Nothing Underneath / Jumpsuit: Azzi & Osta / Bow: Hannah Sophia England / Trainers: Gola / Jewellery: Heavenly London