The star of stage and screen on playing Persephone in Netflix’s bold take on Greek mythology, going viral and being uncool about awards

Actor, producer and campaigner Rakie Ayola, 56, was born in Cardiff to a Sierra Leonean mother and a Nigerian father. She trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. She won a Bafta for the BBC drama Anthony and a Bafta Cymru for The Pact, but is perhaps best known as nurse Kyla Tyson in Holby City and for playing Hermione Granger in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. She now stars in Netflix series Kaos, a modern-day retelling of Greek mythology.

What attracted you to the role of Persephone, queen of the underworld?

My character’s first scene at Mount Olympus. Hades and Persephone arrive for breakfast, then she proceeds to just help herself to the breakfast bar. I...