Doctor Who: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Ncuti Gatwa
3. He's A Doctor Of Many Firsts
Ncuti Gatwa's casting as the Doctor is incredibly progressive and groundbreaking for several reasons.
He's the first Black male actor to play the Doctor in its 60-year history, marking a huge step forward for the Whoniverse.
Born in Rwanda in 1992, Gatwa is also the first actor to play the Doctor who wasn't born in the UK. When he was two years old, his family left Rwanda, fleeing the genocide against the Tutsi and arriving in Scotland.
Predominantly raised and educated in Scotland, Gatwa now joins the ranks of the great Scottish Doctors: Sylvester McCoy, David Tennant (twice), and Peter Capaldi.
In another huge step forward for Doctor Who, Gatwa is also the first openly queer actor to play the Doctor. In an interview with Elle back in 2023, Gatwa movingly talked about the importance of representation, and affectingly described his interaction with a queer Rwandan woman at Manchester Pride.
The charged looks between the Fifteenth Doctor and Jonathan Groff's mysterious rogue could indicate that this will be part of the Doctor's identity too, boldy reinventing the character for modern viewers.