Mona Hammond

Mona Hammond
  

Mona Hammond OBE (born Mavis Chin; 1 January 1931 – 4 July 2022) was a Jamaican-British actress and co-founder of the Talawa Theatre Company. Born in Tweedside, Jamaica, Hammond immigrated to the United Kingdom in 1959, where she lived for the rest of her life. Hammond had a long and distinguished stage career. She was best known for her work on British television and played Blossom Jackson in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Hammond was made an OBE in the 2005 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to drama. In 2018, she was awarded the Women of the World Lifetime Achievement Award for her long and distinguished theatre career and for championing Black British actors with the Talawa Theatre Company.

Early life
Hammond was born Mavis Chin, on 23 January 1931, in Tweedside, Clarendon Parish. Her father was Chinese and her mother was Afro-Jamaican. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1959 on a Jamaican Scholarship and worked for Norman and Dawbarn Architects. She attended evening classes at the City Literary Institute in London for two years and was awarded a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 1964.


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