Her role as sports psychologist Dr Sharon Fieldstone in the hit football comedy Ted Lasso has brought overdue recognition for an actor who has been back and forth between stage and screen for two decades. Niles is a regular performer at the National Theatre, Royal Court, Old Vic and RSC. Viewers may recognize her from I May Destroy You, as police officer Funmi, who interviews Michaela Coel’s character after she is raped. Or from Catastrophe, as fellow Melissa, Sharon Horgan’s teacher. Movie buffs may know her from Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky or Sarah Gavron’s Rocks. Now, in her 40s, fame and acclaim are finally arriving. “I’m probably in a better place to handle it now,” he says. “I’m definitely a much better actor.” He pauses and laughs. “But I’d still like to be a little more successful earlier. I’ve been in business for 20 years – it’s been a long time. I’ve had so many wonderful messages, “You deserve all your flowers, Sarah.” “You are here and you have always been here.” Next to the mighty Succession, Ted Lasso dominates the Emmy shortlists. They look like prestige TV’s Premier League Manchester City and Liverpool. Ted Lasso scored 20 nods in total, making it the comedy with the most nominations for the second year in a row. Niles is joined in her class by actresses Hannah Waddingham (who plays club owner Rebecca Welton) and Juno Temple (WAG-turned-PR whiz Keeley Jones). Opening: Sarah Niles as Dr Sharon with Jason Sudeikis in Ted Lasso. Photo: LMK Dr. Sharon has arrived in season two of the much-loved football comedy, helping to add new depth to the show’s characters and providing a change of pace from the silly comedy. For Niles, the key to her understated performance is silence – not always easy when you’re playing the show’s star and co-creator, American actor Jason Sudeikis. “It’s hard,” he admits. “I’m laughing so hard, it’s ridiculous. People often say I’m the one who laughs the most on set, but that’s between takes and then I open my poker. When he made me, Jason described my character as everything he saw and everything. So I just try to ground myself, trust myself, be still and watch him. It’s exciting to sit and watch someone like that.” Niles’ role in such a big hit is a hit with audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. “So many people have come up and said how important it is to see her up there. Women love her because she is unashamedly able to say that she is good at her job. Not with arrogance, just with confidence. So often, both as women and as Brits, we put ourselves down and apologize. We believe that if you downplay your qualities, people will be more attracted to you. This is not the case and there is no way of life.” She continues: “Many black women, especially in America, love Dr. Sharon because she stands in her strength and power. It’s about seeing yourself represented. Often when you see black female characters on screen, they’re going through some kind of turmoil. Dr. Sharon just exists in her power. I’ve learned a lot playing her. I was always apologetic about my talent, I tried not to be on the front foot too much. But embracing your gifts is exciting.” ‘I’m quite edgy and over the top in real life’: Sarah Niles wears LK Bennett dress, Loveness Lee earrings and Rupert Sanderson heels. Photo: Dean Chalkley/The Observer Niles was born in Thornton Heath, south London, the youngest of three children, to Barbadian parents who arrived in the late 1950s. Her father was an electrician, her mother a nurse. Young Sarah would accompany her mum on weekly shopping trips to Brixton market. One of her earliest memories is of seeing the aftermath of the 1981 riots. “I was listening to the grown-ups talking and I remember saying, ‘I like Michael Foote, but Margaret Thatcher is a fool!’ I had no idea what I was talking about, but it went well.” Shy and awkward, she wasn’t your typical show off. But she loved hearing the stories of her parents and their friends—stories from home in the Caribbean, gossip from the “blues parties” they held at each other’s houses. It was the metaphorical element of the narrative – “trying to find a home,” Niles suspects, as the daughter of immigrants – that led her to acting. School projects gave her a chance to “try not to be myself and explore.” He later trained at Manchester’s Capitol Theatre, whose alumni include Steve Coogan and David Threlfall. Her childhood heroes were singer Lena Horne, actors Diahann Caroll and Mona Hammond and, unprofitably, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. She dreamed she was a member of the A-Team and was watching a sitcom with her dad while he roared with laughter. “Some of them were so inappropriate: Les Dawson, Kenny Everett. He also loved Alf Garnett.’ In recent years, their relationship has entered a new phase. “My dad has Alzheimer’s now,” she says. “It’s such a strange and cruel disease. It makes me sad, but my parents always taught me to find the beauty in the cracks of a thing. So what it has allowed me to do is to live some beautiful moments in the present with him and enjoy those moments together as much as we can. You must enjoy the sunshine of life.” “It was one of those rare scripts where you keep turning the pages and can’t stop shooting”: Sarah Niles with Sharon Horgan in Catastrophe. Photo: Mark Johnson Niles now has a 10-year-old daughter—and a cat—with her husband, an artist who runs community workshops for people with autism and learning differences. The key to their happy marriage? “Acceptance and finding time to have fun together. We have this little plaque on the mantle that says “Adventure is worth it.” Niles considers herself lucky to have worked with two of our finest female screenwriters, Sharon Horgan and Michaela Coel. She loved her time on Catastrophe (“One of those rare scenarios where you keep turning the pages and can’t stop tearing up”) and can’t speak highly enough of I May Destroy You. “It was one of my favorite moments on set,” he says. “I come from theater and this had a similar energy. It felt like we were a group – sensitive, supportive, all looking out for each other. It was great, but also sad. I am humbled that Michaela Coel was brave enough to put this piece out there. It was probably a necessity for her. A proper work of art. I have never had such an experience.” The thread that runs through her memorable TV roles, Niles decides, is this stillness. “I’m starting to realize that all these characters have a kind of rest. Dr. Sharon is like that. Funmi the policeman and Melissa the teacher are like that. I’m pretty lively and hyper in real life and probably don’t get enough sleep. But on screen, stillness is my strength.” There were glimpses of vulnerability beneath Dr Sharon’s calmly composed exterior. It is implied that she is lonely and viewers saw her in the apartment filled with empty wine bottles. Niles is tight-lipped but hints that this may be explored further in the upcoming third series. “It has hidden depths. There is so much juice there. Dr Sharon needs her own spin-off, basically.” More glamorous later: Sarah Niles wears a Roksanda dress and Vivienne Westwood earrings. Photo: Dean Chalkley/The Observer Has Niles treated herself? “Yes. I was actually healing while I was shooting Ted Lasso because there was so much going on with Covid, with Black Lives Matter, with trying to take care of myself in lockdown. My daughter was asking me questions that I didn’t have answers for. I decided it was my duty to be a better person and help, so I went back to therapy.” “I can understand why, because it’s a family at war, vying for power,” Niles says. “But it could also be a catalyst for all kinds of conversations. For a long time, we only saw real black people on TV in crime dramas. There would always be guns or drugs involved. But I remember watching the first episodes of EastEnders in the 80s. There was a Turkish family, a black family, Asian characters. I was like, this is it! This is London! Somewhere down the line, we lost that multicultural Britishness that makes this country so unique. We rarely see different characters sharing space. We panic and think there has to be some big explanation for why they’re together, rather than just existing.” Representation is improving, albeit slowly. “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” he says. “We ran into some obstacles with Riches. Part of the problem is that these Black Britons have never been seen on TV before. In the real world, our appetite and need for these stories are miles ahead of what’s on screen. I have yet to see older black women sharing space. The other night, I was watching [director Steve McQueen’s film] The widows, with Viola Davis and Cynthia Erivo, think, “I can’t wait until we get to that place.” We have so many other stories to…
