Arsema Thomas' Dynamic Journey To Fame

We delve into the life of Arséma Thomas before she became widely known for her portrayal of the young Lady Agatha Danbury in the Netflix Series, “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story”. Uncover her multicultural upbringing, educational pursuits, and rise to fame, as well as her passion for activism.

Arséma Angela Adeoluwayemi Hamera Thomas is a brilliant African-American actor who became a screen favorite after she played young Lady Agatha Danbury in the Netflix series “Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.” In the series, Lady Agatha Danbury (Arséma Thomas) is a close friend and confidante of Queen Charlotte (played by India Amarteifio). She is not the typical Black female support lead that we have come to be familiar with, as the series also spotlights the struggles she experiences as a young Black woman, wife, and mother in 19th Century England .

Arséma Thomas’ Background

Photo Credit: ArsémaThomas

Arséma was born to a Nigerian father, Adebisi Babatunde Thomas, and an Ethiopian mother, Nardos Bekele-Thomas in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Both parents were diplomats with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and as such, Arséma got to experience many cultures from different places in her childhood. She lived in Tanzania, Benin, Togo, Kenya, Comoros, and India. This also helped to foster her fluency in English, French, Spanish, Yoruba, and Arabic.
“Dinner table conversations were about politics, about African governance. I realized that in a lot of the countries I lived in, the effects of colonialism and imperialism were so blatantly obvious. That became the driving force for what I thought I should be doing as an adult,” she said to Teen Vogue. She chose to pursue a degree in Biophysics at Carnegie Mellon University, although her father wanted her to become a doctor.

Photo Credit: Arsema Thomas

Arséma studied Publich Health at Yale University. As a first-year student in the Department of Health Policy and Management, she started a company called Mosaic, with her fellow students, Marcus Ihemdi and Luke Versten. Her reason for choosing it over medicine was that she had witnessed the re-emergence of infectious diseases such as cholera and malaria, in refugee camps, during her stay in East and West Africa, and wanted to gain a deeper understanding.

It was also at Yale that she was drawn to the drama department. “Something physical happened in my body when I was next to it or even heard anything about it,” Thomas told Cosmopolitan UK. “So, I started auditioning for random student films, eventually joining a community theatre.” Going from drama school in Paris, to London for training at the prestigious institutes of RADA and LAMDA, “That’s when I realized, ‘Okay, this is for me. I like it’.”

Arséma Thomas Acting Career

Photo Credit: Arséma Thomas

Arséma began her acting career on stage, performing in productions such as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “The Importance of Being Earnest,” and “The Winter’s Tale”. In 2018, she played Leila in “Nightwatcher”, and in 2022, “Redeeming Love.”

Her debut as Lady Agatha Danbury is what brought her to the limelight and fame. When asked in an interview with THS if she was prepared for her role, she replied, “No. I had no idea. I was in a unique position, because I had never watched the show when I auditioned.”

She was working as a butcher’s assistant in London when she got the news that she was to be a part of the Bridgerton prequel, Queen Charlotte. She told Teen Vogue that she had been expecting the call. “The first thing I thought was they made a massive mistake. It could not be me. It must be somebody else. Are they sure?”

Arséma Thomas Becoming Young Lady Danbury

Arsema Thomas on the cover of Glamour magazine

Arséma revealed that she initially was not aware of the role she was auditioning for. After she got the script for Queen Charlotte, she had to mentally prepare herself to fully portray her character.

“There was something interesting or different about this type of storytelling, because it’s clearly grabbing people. There was something about the fact that I have never seen a character written like this for a Black woman before. Usually, if she’s supporting the main narrative, she doesn’t have a three-dimensional narrative of her own — she only exists in the realm of the lead. And to see that this woman was just so engaging, so mysterious — but in a way that didn’t detract from her complexity, but rather added to it in a beautiful way … I was like, ‘I want to be this woman when I grow up.’” She told THR.

Portraying the character of a black British aristocrat in the series may have looked effortless, however, no one would have thought that she was full of self-doubt and insecurity, and prone to tripping over her own feet. It is a testament to her character that she admits it. “My friends will describe me as a chatterbox. The one with the jokes, never serious, a goofball.” Arséma told Cosmo. “I am extremely clumsy — on Queen Charlotte, most of the blooper reels were of me falling on everything.”

Photo Credit: Arséma Thomas

In Lady Danbury’s story, Arséma drew parallels from the stories of her mother and grandmother—both of whom she spoke with at length after she got the role. She also talked to several cast members from the Old Bridgerton-verse, keeping a close connection, especially with her elder counterpart in the series, Adjoa Andoh.

“Adjoa as herself is a stellar individual,” Thomas says. “I actually was scared because she is so magnetic, and then Lady Danbury is just something else. She doesn’t even feel very human. She just operates on a different wavelength.” she told Teen Vogue.

She credits the authenticity of Lady Agatha’s character to Shonda Rhimes, who, as a black woman herself, understands how to make her characters three-dimensional.

Arsema, Passionate Activist

Her spectacular education and rising acting career are just as charming as her life as an activist. She is very vocal about her zeal for change. “It’s the one thing you can fight for and know you’re on the right side [of history],” Arséma told Cosmo. “The exact point of racism is to strip people of their humanness and uniqueness. When I recognized that, it became a necessity to make [activism] part of whatever I do for the rest of my life because it fulfills me.”

Her Instagram page shows a glimpse of how her mind works, with several posts of works by activists, liberatory thinkers, writers, musicians, and poets.

Photo Credit: Arséma Thomas

“We’re in this society that tells us what to do to the point where we don’t even know what we would actually want ourselves,” Thomas says. “It’s so similar to the situation she’s (Agatha Danbury) in with her husband — from three years old to essentially age 23, 24, and being groomed for a man, you know, being molded. Essentially, she’s made up to be what he wants.”

Photo Credit: Arséma Thomas

Nothing could have prepared us for the wild ride that began when the Bridgerton Series first came to our screens. The story is based on the Bridgerton Book Series by Julia Quinn, and has become one of the most streamed Netflix original series.

We look forward to what the future holds for young, talented, and beautiful Arséma.