Susan Chardy

Zambian-British actress Susan Chardy won the 2024 BIFA for Breakthrough Performer and earned a nomination for Best Lead Performance at the British Independent Film Awards. These accolades celebrate her remarkable screen debut leading role as Shula in A24’s critically acclaimed feature On Becoming a Guinea Fowl directed by Rungano Nyoni (follow up of arthouse hit, I Am Not a Witch). The film, also backed by BBC Film and Fremantle and produced by Element Pictures (Poor Things, Room), premiered in competition at the Cannes 2024 film festival to rave reviews with The Guardian praising Susan as an “excellent actor” and the film winning best director. Driving along an empty road, Shula stumbles across the body of her uncle Fred. As funeral proceedings begin, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family. The film portrays universal issues of sexual abuse and women’s rights but from a different perspective and more specifically to this kind of culture and how it manifests itself. Susan is also an entrepreneur and philanthropist and after 15 years with the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund UK, she recently became a global ambassador for Global Fund for Children to support the rights and voices of children and young people worldwide. She is passionate about helping others and continues to find ways to give back, including establishing Wimby Wednesday (https://www.instagram.com/wimbywednesday/?hl=en), an annual pre-Wimbledon fundraiser introducing different causes to guests.