We tell children that they might be anything they wish to be—but Oprah believes we are able to only be what we’re meant to be. Within the case of Ugandan-born British actress Sheila Atim, Oprah could have it exactly right. Atim, 31, who can also be a singer and playwright, has spent her life learning to lean into her passions—and every time she has been hesitant to accomplish that, external forces have conspired to guide her down the proper path. 

That was Atim’s outlook when her dream of becoming a physician faded—she recalls that she wasn’t granted any interviews to attend medical school, despite excellent grades and a stellar application. Deeply dissatisfied on the time, Atim now knows that the consequence worked in her favor. “It was divine intervention,” she says, “pushing me to where I’m actually imagined to be and what I’m imagined to be doing.” 

Though she had earned a level in biomedical science, within the aftermath of her rejection from medical school, Atim figured she’d pursue a profession as a vocalist, since music was her old flame. But as she was attempting to determine the right way to grow to be knowledgeable singer, she stumbled into acting as an alternative. “I used to be going to all of those art clubs, they usually offered drama classes,” she recalls. “I made a decision to try those out, because I had all the time loved drama at school.”  

Before she knew it, Atim was singing in musical-theater productions. “All of it is sensible now that I’m here, but on the time I attempted to withstand,” she says. “I didn’t think being an artist was a profession path for me. I all the time thought it was a hobby.” 

That belief had rather a lot to do with Atim’s immigrant background: She traveled from Uganda to the United Kingdom along with her mother when she was just an infant. “There’s this type of leaning toward stability in immigrant families,” she says. “If you happen to’re going to maneuver somewhere to have a greater life, you need to be sure that you’re doing all the things you may to see that through.”  

Fearing that her daughter was devoting an excessive amount of time to drama, Atim’s mother once forbade her child from starring in a college play. Atim decided to audition anyway—and was solid as Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar. Later, she casually invited her mother to the show. After the performance, Atim recalls, as an alternative of reprimanding her for her defiance, her mother said, “It is a big a part of you, and also you’re good at it. I’m glad that you just did the show.”  

Those words would help Atim along in her acting journey. “The way in which she phrased it, she made me realize that there was this type of gravitational pull toward creating,” she says. In 2013, Atim’s foray into skilled acting began along with her cowriting and performing within the musical The Lightning Child. Five years later, she would earn her first Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her part within the musical Girl from the North Country. She won her second earlier this yr, for Lead Actress within the play Constellations. And in 2019, she premiered her own play, Anguis, on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Producing like this unlocked an entire recent level of artistry for Atim.  

“I didn’t think I had ideas in that way,” she explains. “I believed I used to be the one who is available in once the thought has already been formed, and I help the thought get executed. It was like this little hatch in my brain opened, and it was like, Oh my God, there are all this stuff in here, too.” 

Through the writing process for Anguis, Atim discovered one other vital lesson about her voice. The 2019 play included a story line a couple of virus outbreak, which individuals round her didn’t totally understand. Only months later, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived—and the entire world knew what it meant to be affected by widespread disease. “There was something about that have that made me go, I even have things to say that will actually be relevant, even when on the time they don’t feel like they’re,” Atim reflects.  

When the real-world virus caused theater productions to shut, Atim took her talents to the screen in Netflix’s Bruised, directed and produced by Halle Berry. The editor for Bruised took notice of Atim’s work and really useful her for an additional project led by Black women: Director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King, starring Viola Davis and Lashana Lynch. The editor’s reference landed Atim the job.  

Inspired by historical events within the Dahomey Kingdom in the course of the 18th and nineteenth centuries, The Woman King demanded a recent level of physicality from Atim. “We were training with a capital T,” she recalls. “We were learning recent skills left, right and center. I don’t even understand how I learned a few of those things. It was just every possible opportunity, each day.” 

Working on the film, which hit theaters on September 16, she also realized something in regards to the elasticity of her limits. “I learned that I can push myself rather a lot further than I believe I can,” Atim says. “And I also learned that I don’t all the time should. It’s an actual skill to gauge where your yes is and where’s your no. Where’s your hard stop? I believe that’s something that you’ve gotten to continue learning and recalibrating and experiencing through life.” 

It’s a part of an inventive journey that Atim now fully embraces as her destiny. “Within the last couple of years of my profession, I’ve been really lucky to work with a number of Black women, and that doesn’t occur often within the U.K.,” she says. “The enrichment I’ve felt from having those experiences is invaluable. I’m really excited for us to try this more. I hope it’s something that keeps on going.” 

This text appears within the September/October 2022 issue of ESSENCE magazine on newsstands now.