Bukky Bakray is in demand. But when she isn’t acting, the 19-year-old Hackney native can be mostly be found wandering east London with her friends, an area that for a long time was all she knew. Growing up in Lower Clapton, her early childhood memories are of the Asda carpark in Leyton, eating KFC in the car while her mum did the shopping or playing with her brothers in the park. ‘I walk past there now and there’s nothing in that park,’ Bakray laughs. ‘But to me and my brothers back then, it was like Chessington or Thorpe Park. I remember it being amazing.’
Bakray was five when work began on nearby Stratford City that preceded the 2012 Olympics, and was turning 10 when it was completed. She thinks the regeneration had a positive effect. ‘I started to go to the gym by the Copper Box and now I’m walking around there all the time, I’m reaping the benefits,’ she says. ‘People are nicer when they’re close to green spaces, people are always smiling round there. It’s refreshing being around places like that. Everyone is deserving of that refreshment.’
As a teenager she began venturing into central London, dressing up with her friends (‘in the dumbest outfits!’) and ending the day at Pret. ‘We’d do that for bants, to feel like we were busy people,’ she says. School trips to places such as Buckingham Palace gave her a respect for the city’s landmarks, but she prefers the street art. ‘The graffiti in London is crazy. There’s a Jay Z one in Shoreditch that’s just dope.’
Bakray says only Londoners born and raised can understand, and fully appreciate, the informal language that originates on its streets. ‘The lingo is absolutely stunning,’ she says. ‘It’s like Shakespeare. People mistake it for being uneducated, but I went to school with people who were exceptional, who excelled, got all A*s and they use the most slang I’ve ever heard in my life. Slang is not a reflection of education, it’s just what being a Londoner is.’
Seeing London through the eyes of the characters she has played in 2020’s Rocks, the BBC’s You Don’t Know Me and upcoming Liaison and The Strays has given Bakray a new understanding of her home. ‘Even though we’re all living in the same place, our experiences are so different. A lot of people live lives that aren’t really secure. The reputation for rudeness Londoners have comes from the lack of time because it’s such a hubbub here,’ she says. ‘London has its ugly, but people are very generous. That’s what I’m seeing in front of me.’
