Seyi was hounded out of a promising theatre career after her four-year-old Facebook posts on Biblical marriage were criticised on Twitter.
Seyi Omooba was cast as Celie in a production of the award-winning musical The Color Purple. But when another West End actor dug up a Biblical Facebook post on marriage from over 4 years earlier, she was pressured out of the role. She was then dropped by her agency after citing a fake news report about her.
Seyi is suing the theatre and Global Artists agency on the grounds of religious discrimination and breach of contract. Seyi had secured support of an eminent theatre critic, Lloyd Evans, and a renowned theologian, Dr Martin Parsons, who both provided expert reports supporting her claim. However, in a written decision from June 2020, an Employment Judge ordered both expert reports to be excluded from the case. This decision was upheld by the Employment Appeal Tribunal in November 2020.
Seyi said: “When I received the email that I was going to be dropped from the cast, I was heartbroken. The agency told me that I would receive financial compensation, but I am not in this for the money. For me it’s not about the money or my face – it was about telling and expressing Celie’s story, as I interpret it as a performer, because that is what I love to do.
“Yet the theatre and the agency gave me the choice of either losing my career or renouncing my faith. I could not do this, not even to save the career that I love.”
Read the legal documents
- Read the Employment Appeal Tribunal permission to appeal evidence bundle
- Read the expert report by Lloyd Evans
- Read the expert report by Dr Martin Parsons
- Read the chronology of the case so far
- Read the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s final decision