Michaela Coel Dedicated 'I May Destroy You' BAFTA TV Awards Win To Intimacy Director Ita O'Brien

Michael Coel walks the red carpet in a stunning black gown at the 2021 BAFTA TV Awards held at Television Centre on Sunday (June 6) in London, England.

The 33-year-old actress wore a Maximilian dress which was detailed with cutouts on the back and front, as well as bright red bell sleeves.

At the event, Michaela picked up two awards for I May Destroy You, and she dedicated one of them to the show’s intimacy director, Ita O’Brien.

“I want to dedicate this award to the director of intimacy Ita O’Brien,” she shared with the crowd after picking up the leading actress award. “Thank you for your existence in our industry, for making the space safe for creating physical, emotional, and professional boundaries so that we can make work about exploitation, loss of respect, about abuse of power, without being exploited or abused in the process.”

Michaela went on, “I know what it’s like to shoot without an intimacy director — the messy, embarrassing feeling for the crew, the internal devastation for the actor. Your direction was essential to my show, and I believe essential for every production company that wants to make work exploring themes of consent.”

The wins come after Michaela and the series was first snubbed by the Golden Globe Awards earlier in the year, and backlash quickly followed that decision.