Actress Cush honoured by Exeter University

Internationally acclaimed actress Cush Jumbo OBE is the latest celebrity to receive an honorary degree from Exeter University.

And she called on new graduates to live in the moment as she was recognised for her award-winning work.

Cush was given an honorary degree to mark her astonishing career in film, television and theatre, during which she’s taken control by writing her own roles alongside supporting the next generation of performers.

She joked about how her DLitt “sounds very important and very grown up”. She said: “I may look very calm but right now the little South London girl inside me is jumping up and down saying “they think I’m clever”.

Cush spoke about how she had previously been too focused on what her next achievement should be. She told the new graduates about advice given to her by Meryl Streep, who visited her when she was starring in her self-penned play Josephine and I, about jazz singer Josephine Baker. When Cush asked what she should do next Meryl told her: “Where you should be is right here”.

Cush said: “I realised I was wasting the joy of now by constantly wondering when I would get to where I was going, even though I didn’t know where I was going. If you are always trying to get somewhere you are never really anywhere at all.”

After reading Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 she told the new graduates: “You did it. And you will continue to do it and I massively congratulate you on what you’ve achieved so far and what you will no doubt achieve in the future. But don’t think about that too much just yet. Because in this wonderful moment there is nowhere more important than right here. This space right now is the centre of the universe and you are exactly where you are meant to be.”

Cush, who was born in South London, graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama in 2006 before embarking on an acting, writing and producing career.

For Josephine and I she won an Emerging Talent Award at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Cush made her Broadway debut in the autumn of 2014 when she appeared in the transfer of the Royal Court Theatre production of The River by Jez Butterworth opposite Hugh Jackman.

Cush can currently be seen opposite Peter Capaldi in her Apple TV series Criminal Record in which she stars and Executive Produces. Cush has just played Lady Macbeth opposite David Tennant at the Donmar Warehouse. She is well known for starring in US series The Good Wife and The Good Fight and can be seen as the lead in Britbox drama The Beast Must Die, and Netflix series Stay Close.

Cush is three-time Olivier nominated, most recently in 2022 for playing Hamlet at The Young Vic Theatre. She was appointed an OBE in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to drama.

Other horary degree recipients included comedian Josh Widdicombe, and musicians Damon Albarn and Will Young.