Empire Spotlight: Malachi Kirby Enters The Ring

As the star of A Thousand Blows, the British actor continues to take big swings

Malachi Kirby is the kind of actor who would rather tell you about his mum than about his BAFTA. After winning Best Supporting Actor at the 2020 TV awards for portraying real-life activist Darcus Howe in Mangrove — one instalment of Steve McQueen’s acclaimed anthology Small Axe — Kirby could practically touch the sky.

The London-born actor, who has appeared in landmark British television from EastEnders to Black Mirror to his latest — A Thousand Blows, a historical boxing series from Steven Knight — has built an impressive résumé. But even as he works with the very best, he counts his mum as number one. “We lived on a council estate; most of our food came out of a tin,” he tells Empire. “But she made me feel like we were so rich. I just grew up believing anything was possible.”

Performing wasn’t Kirby’s original choice of career; his dream was to be a novelist. “I always say I’m not really an actor; it’s something that I do, but it’s not who I am,” he admits. Still, the bug bit him in year nine while on a course at Battersea Arts Centre near where he grew up, so he moved on to South London’s Identity School Of Acting.

I enjoy needing to do research and wanting to honour someone in that way. There’s an energy to tap into.

The actor cut his teeth on the stage, and he describes his transition into television and film as initially nerve-racking. “I was really introverted, and I didn’t like cameras in my face, honestly,” he reflects. “I felt more safe on the stage. But I’ve learned to have more of an appreciation for the relationship with the camera.” That confidence was bolstered by his collaboration with McQueen in 2019: “I thought on set he would be very controlled, but he gave me the most creative licence [that] I think I’ve ever had.”

For his role as Hezekiah Moscow, the hero of A Thousand Blows, Kirby plays another real historical figure: a newcomer in Victorian London-turned-bare-knuckle fighter. “I want to play characters who actually existed,” Kirby enthuses. “I enjoy needing to do research and wanting to honour someone in that way. There’s an energy to tap into. I had never boxed in my life, and I didn’t realise how much of the sport is psychological.” The series is set in the 1800s, when many Black people were in servitude or enslaved. Moscow, however, was free, and wanted to be a lion-tamer. “He needed to protect his dream,” Kirby adds. He does that protecting from his onscreen nemesis, played by Stephen Graham, an actor Kirby also starred alongside in the tense 2021 kitchen drama Boiling Point. “There’s something about him as an actor that demands the truth out of you,” Kirby summarises of his co-star.

The actor’s ongoing small-screen journey will see him play two brothers as the dual leading roles in Anansi Boys, Prime Video’s large-scale adaptation of the epic fantasy novel. And despite his burgeoning acting career, he’s committed to writing his own work for both stage and screen as well. “I’ve always wanted to create worlds that I couldn’t actually experience in real life. They have an element of fantasy to them,” he says, with a hint of shyness. Malachi Kirby might be soft-spoken, but then, the work speaks pretty loudly for itself. And hopefully makes his mum proud.

The TV Show: Gangs Of London

"I just watched both seasons – I know I'm late to the party, but that show took me on a rollercoaster and was extremely hard to switch off. Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù was a revelation; I think he's one of the best actors around right now."

The Album: Being Poor Is Expensive by Bashy

"There are not many albums I've come across in my lifetime that I put on back-to-back repeat. And not just some songs – the whole album. I love it so much that I got the vinyl. Banger."

The Artwork: Time And Silence by Caroline Halley des Fontaines

"I was recently at a press junket and saw this book by [her]. There was a photograph of a face on the front cover that I couldn't take my eyes off. I find faces and the stories they tell so interesting, especially of the elders."

A Thousand Blows is coming to Disney+ and Hulu in 2025.

This article first appeared in the January 2025 issue of Empire. Photography by Ollie Adegboye, shot exclusively for Empire in London.