It’s been six years since Toheeb Jimoh burst on to our screens as the warm and loveable Sam in Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso. And now 2026 is set to be his biggest year yet, as he joins season four of BBC’s Industry and stars alongside Cynthia Erivo in the movie adaptation of Prima Facie. Off-screen, Toheeb is just as open and personable as Sam, as he tells us about his drama school days, hanging out with Kiernan Shipka and his favourite annual tradition.
Tell us about your character in Industry…
I play Kwabena – he’s a trader who starts working with Harper (Myha’la Herrold) at Mostyn Asset Management. The world of finance feels like it’s inhabited by a lot of upper-middle-class, privately educated white men, and to be a Black Ghanaian in that feels like he’s having to assimilate and fit in. In Kwabena’s storyline we get to explore what happens when this thing you’ve tried your hardest to fit into turns around and doesn’t really want you.
Were you a fan before you were cast?
I watched the show because my friend Marisa [Abela, who plays Yasmin] is in it. We were at different drama schools but overlapped, and so I first watched it because it was her show. Then I started falling in love with other characters. At the first read-through, she’d just won a Bafta and I was thinking back to us at 18 auditioning for drama school, then suddenly she’s a Bafta-winning actress. It was a surreal moment.
You’re not the only new cast member this season - Kiernan Shipka, Charlie Heatonand Jack Farthing are also joining. Did you have a newbies group chat?
We didn’t! I didn’t have any scenes with Kiernan, but we ended up hanging out. She’s the nicest person. We were shooting in Wales and we’d go to restaurants and she knew the waiters’ names. She got one of them a dinner reservation in New York because he was going there. I’m bummed we didn’t get to shoot together.
You have a number of sex scenes in the series; how did you feel about that?
My first day on set was an intimacy scene. It was the most Industry welcome I could have had. It was great to just dive into the deep end and after that I got to wear clothes for the rest of it.
Do you ever feel pressure to look a certain way during those scenes?
I don’t. If I want to go to the gym, I'll do that. But everyone ends up perpetuating the same idea – "If your body doesn’t look like this [certain body type], it shouldn’t be on camera." One thing I love about our generation is it feels like there is a new wave of leading men who look and behave differently, who don’t fit a heteronormative standard of what masculinity is. I feel glad to be a part of [that] wave.
This year you also star alongside Cynthia Erivo in the screen adaptation of Prima Facie. What can you tell us about it?
Cynthia’s incredible and I got to shoot with Noma Dumezweni. We were a little family; it was awesome. Susanna White is a brilliant director, and the story is incredible. It’s so moving, so poignant, so current. It’s one of those projects you do that you go, "This is actually going to change someone’s life."
Speaking of Cynthia, do you like musicals?
When I was in drama school I went through a big musical phase. One of my best friends sat me down and gave me a musical theatre crash course. It got to the point [where] I was singing musicals in the shower.
We all loved you in Ted Lasso; who are you still in contact with from the cast?
Brett (Goldstein), Hannah (Waddingham), especially Phil (Dunster) and a lot of the guys who made up the rest of the football team, we’re in a group chat. There are like four Ted Lasso group chats. I was messaging Nick [Mohammed] last night about The Celebrity Traitors.
Of all the characters you’ve played, who would you like to go for dinner with?
I’d like to have dinner at Sam’s restaurant, have some Nigerian food, that would be cool. Romeo from Romeo and Juliet. I could give some life advice, like, "Leave that girl alone. Go to therapy."
Are you a good cook?
No, I just don’t do it. I live with my older brother and my cousin, who do cook. I do the washing up. I wash a mean dish.
In your career you’ve done a mix of stage and screen; where do you feel most comfortable?
I’ve always wanted to have a career that would span both. My love for acting came from theatre. I was an usher at the Young Vic theatre throughout drama school. I just finished doing a play with Ian McKellen and the one thing he kept telling me was, "You have to make sure you keep doing plays." It’s the place that really stretches you. If by the end of that 104th show you haven’t grown as an artist, then maybe it’s not for you.
At the start of a new year, do you make any resolutions?
I’ve given up on resolutions. However, I do have a tradition with one of my friends, Jonathan Ajayi. It started on a random Boxing Day a few years ago, and every year we’ll meet up and we just talk about everything we want to do or accomplish next year and everything we liked about the year just gone. It’s nice to sit down with someone who is as ambitious as you are, who also believes in you as much as you believe in them. And you’ll say some crazy dream out loud and he doesn’t flinch.
Photography: Lewis Vorn; Styling: Rebecca Jane Hill; Editor in Chief: Claire Hodgson; Art Director: Alex Hambis; Entertainment Editor (Special Projects): Nicola Fahey; Grooming: Courtney-Reece Scott; Photo Assistant: Juliette Najman; Production: Beverley Croucher
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