[2] Josette Bushell-Mingo was born in 1964 in the Lewisham area of London to Guyanese parents – her father was a bus driver, her mother a nurse – and grew up in Plaistow.
[5] At 17, she auditioned for and was admitted to Barking College, where she did her A levels in Drama, Theatre Design, and Performing Arts.
[7] She was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in 1999 for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as Rafiki in the London production of The Lion King.
[16] From 2005-2018, she was the Artistic Director for the National Touring Swedish Deaf Theatre ensemble TystTeater.
[13][17] The company's 2008 signed production of The Odyssey received huge critical acclaim in Scandinavia.
[13][18][19] After leaving the National Touring Swedish Deaf Theatre, she became the Head of Acting at the Stockholm University of the Arts.
[3][21] She has also given lectures and taught at a number of theatre schools such as London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Coventry University, London College of Fashion, and Malmö Theatre Academy.