Chyna McQueen On Her Historic BAFTA TV Nom For ‘Get Millie Black’

“I still can’t believe it. I’m trying to process it, like, all of this can happen in just a few days,” Chyna McQueen, one of the breakout performers from HBO and Channel 4’s crime drama Get Millie Black, tells Deadline, over Zoom, from her home in New York City. 

We are talking just a few days after McQueen landed a BAFTA TV Award nomination in the Best Supporting Actress category for her performance in the series. The nomination was the show’s sole BAFTA TV nod and slots McQueen into a unique piece of BAFTA history as one of the first Jamaican actresses and first Black Trans performer to be nominated for a BAFTA TV award. 

“I didn’t even really know they were campaigning. I just got a call in the morning on nominations day from Simon Maxwell, the producer, who said Chyna, you’ve been nominated,” McQueen explains. “I said nominated for what? And they told me BAFTA. I really wasn’t expecting that.” 

Created by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James, Get Millie Black follows a Jamaican-born Briton and former Scotland Yard detective, Millie-Jean Black (Tamara Lawrance), who returns to Kingston, Jamaica, to work on a series of missing persons cases. On the island, Black is reunited with her sibling, Hibiscus (McQueen), and soon they are both entangled in a case that threatens to reshape their lives. 

Get Millie Black is McQueen’s first onscreen credit. Before acting, McQueen was a freelance creative, modeling for various campaigns in Jamaica and working with LGBTQ organizations on the island.

“I was actually on the verge of searching for a job when I was offered this opportunity,” McQueen explains. She landed an audition for the show after being spotted by filmmaker and actress Nadean Rawlins at an art exhibition in Jamaica. 

“She saw me first and came over. She asked me where I was from and said there was an upcoming project that is currently casting, and I would be perfect for it,” McQueen says. 

McQueen submitted a self-tape, and, as she explains, “the rest is history.” 

“I found out that Marlon James, as soon as he saw my introduction video, said, Yes, that’s the one, that’s Hibiscus,” McQueen explains. 

Get Millie Black is also James’s first time writing for the screen, and speaking with Deadline ahead of the show’s launch in 2024, the decorated scribe said he started the project to showcase the “richness” of queer Caribbean communities. 

“While we are not shying away from the cruelty that our queer people experience, we also wanted to show the richness of their lives,” James told Deadline at the time.

And the show arrived at a divisive time in Jamaican politics, particularly around the rights of LGBTQ+ citizens. Just a few days before McQueen’s historic nomination, Andrew Holness, the country’s Prime Minister, was condemned by local human rights groups for bookending his 2026 budget presentation with a transphobic diatribe. Nonetheless, McQueen says the response to her performance and nomination back home in Jamaica has been positive. 

“People have been saying, Wow, she did a really amazing job,” McQueen says. “People are really excited. After all the work I’ve been doing in Jamaica, this is the payoff. Finally, I can see what all my hard work back in Jamaica has achieved.”

Get Millie Black doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but James and his writing team certainly introduce enough story to warrant a second season. I put the possibility to McQueen. 

“It’s being discussed,” McQueen says of a potential second season. “It’s not in the works yet, but it’s being discussed, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed, and everyone should keep their fingers crossed, too.”

Until then, McQueen says she’s keeping busy in New York. 

“One or two casting directors have already started reaching out about upcoming projects, and I’m getting ready to meet them, so I’m excited to see where things go,” McQueen says. “This is all just a blessing.”