Sex Education’s Ncuti Gatwa teases Eric’s journey for season 3: “He returns back to his culture a lot more”

The Rwandan-Scottish actor, who is up for Best Male Comedy Performance at this year's BAFTA TV Awards, spoke about what season three has in store for his character Eric Effiong during a BAFTA Q&A.

When asked whether there any particular Sex Education scenes that have stayed with him, Gatwa said he found a particular scene in the upcoming third season particularly "profound".

"I can't talk about it too much but this season," he told RadioTimes.com and other press. "Eric returns back to his culture a lot more and I think those scenes were very special.

"Just kind of having a set where the majority of people were Black was really great and really powerful and representing Eric's culture and his family, those are always very quite profound moments."

He added: "In season one, there's a scene where he goes to prom in a full African outfit and in a Nigerian headdress and I was just like, 'Wow, I'm on a Netflix set, a big set, representing a culture that doesn't normally get represented, representing a character that doesn't normally get represented. This feels good.

"So I think any time he returns back to his culture or is with Asa [Butterfield], is with Otis – those are favourite scenes of mine."

Gatwa made his TV debut as Eric, the gay best friend of Oti Milburn (Asa Butterfield), in Sex Education's first series in 2019 and has since been nominated for two BAFTA TV Awards, two MTV Movie Awards and won a BAFTA Scotland and a Royal Television Society award.

This year, he'll be competing with This Country's Charlie Cooper, Man Like Mobeen's Guz Khan, Brassic's Joseph Gilgun, Inside No. 9's Reece Shearsmith and the late Paul Ritter for Friday Night Dinner.

The BAFTA TV Awards 2021 air on Sunday 6th June. Check out our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight. Visit our Drama hub for all the latest news.