Director's Residency
Adjoa Andoh MBE
April 19-25, 2026
Adjoa Andoh MBE is the inaugural resident in the new Director’s Residency at the Folger Shakespeare Library. While Andoh is most well-known among American audiences for her role as Lady Danbury in the Netflix TV show Bridgerton, she is also a highly regarded Shakespearean actor and director.
View biography
Adjoa Andoh MBE
Adjoa Andoh MBE
An actor, writer, and director with a career spanning 4 decades, Adjoa Andoh is best known for playing Lady Danbury in Bridgerton and in its prequel Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, for which she is a 4-time nominee at the NAACP Awards. She starred alongside Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood’s Nelson Mandela biographical film Invictus. Her many television roles also include Nenneke in the Netflix blockbuster fantasy drama, The Witcher. On the stage, Andoh has had lead roles at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, Young Vic, The Kiln, and in 2019, she conceived, co-directed and played the lead in Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe in the UK’s first all women-of-color production.
View full biographyPublic programs during Andoh’s residency
Generous support for public programs related to the Director’s Residency is provided by Vinton and Sigrid Cerf. Additional underwriting for the Staged Reading of Macbeth made possible by Susan Sachs Goldman.
Tell Out My Soul: What’s The Story and Who’s Telling It?
Shakespeare's Globe Richard II
Staged Reading: Macbeth
About the residency
The Director’s Residency, established by Folger Director Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper and organized through the Director’s office, aims to connect a prominent artist or thinker with the resources of the Folger in order to engage with Shakespeare and the humanities in new and innovative ways.
For the residency, Andoh spent a week in Washington, DC, consulting the Folger’s collection, participating in public programs at the Folger, visiting other cultural centers, and working with students.
This residency allows the Folger to magnify its mission showing how Shakespeare and the humanities spark curiosity, nurture critical inquiry, and equip us to meet the complexities of our time with creativity and courage.
Folger Director Dr. Farah Karim-Cooper
Photo highlights
Public talk: “Tell Out My Soul”
Staged reading: Macbeth
Media coverage
The Guardian
David Smith interviewed Adjoa Andoh for The Guardian:
“I had a bit of a cry yesterday,” she confesses, reflecting on her viewing of the world’s biggest collection of Shakespeare’s First Folios and her tour of the vaults. “There’s something fantastically, energetically interesting about the Folger being where it’s placed,” in the nation’s capital, she says.
NPR
NPR’s Juana Summers talks with Adjoa Andoh, the inaugural Director’s Resident at the Folger Shakespeare Library, about Shakespeare’s relevance in modern times, and specifically to people of color.
NBC Washington
In this video interview, Adjoah Andoh talks with News4’s Tommy McFly about her director’s residency, what she loves about Shakespeare, and why the Folger is one of Washington, DC’s true treasures.
