‘Champion’ Star Déja J. Bowens Calls Netflix Series a ‘Love Letter to Black British Culture’ (Exclusive)

The British television series Champion premiered on BBC this past summer and earned praise from critics. The show has made its way to the United States as it can be seen on Netflix, and the hope is viewers learn more about the Black community in Britain while being entertained with great music. PopCulture.com talked to Champion star Déja J. Bowens about the show and what it means to have it on a streaming service. 

“It’s a love letter to Black British culture and Black Brits all over the world, or all over Britain, and to encapsulate what it is to be a Black Brit as well,” Bowens told PopCulture. “I don’t think that culture has been explored very much. Obviously, we’ve had shows like Top Boy and surges of shows like Dreaming Whilst Black to show the world how we live and what our culture is like. It just shines a light on the fact that we do have our own culture. We do have a way of living, and yeah, it’s just amazing that we can share that with the rest of the world on Netflix.”

In Champion, Bowens plays Vita Champion, the younger sister of rap sensation Bosco Champion (Malcolm Kamulete). Vita helps Bosco in every aspect of his career, but when Bosco’s rival discovers Vita’s talent, she decides to do her own thing and becomes a top performer, leading to the two siblings battling each other. 

“Her journey of just self-discovery, self-empowerment and discovering and realizing her worth and blossoming into her own person because at the start, you don’t really get a sense of who Vita is because she’s so behind the scenes,” Bowens explained. “She’s always in her brother’s shadow. She’s just this worker girl who just doesn’t have her own personality. Then as the episodes go by, you start to get more of a sense of who she is and the power that is actually inside of her, and that journey is just beautiful.”

In Champion, Vita is a strong signer, and Bowens said that was the most challenging part about playing her. “I have a weird relationship with singing, at the start anyway,” Bowens said. “I always was happy singing soprano in my singing groups in parts of choirs, but then this role meant I had to sing solo, and that was something new. When I did land the role, it was very fast-paced, getting on to things, quick turnarounds. So I was straight into singing rehearsals with my vocal coach. When I saw the amount of songs coming through, I was like, ‘Surely these aren’t all for me,’ but surely they were. They were all for me. So I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness, I’m going to have a lot to get down.’

Champion was created by Candice Carty-Williams, an award-winning author who also wrote three of the show’s eight episodes. The show is Bowens’ first major television role, and she was happy to work alongside a talented cast that included Nadine Marshall and Ray Feron. Marshall will be featured in the new film Bob Marley: One Love, and Fearon recently starred in the blockbuster hit Barbie. 

“It was a treat,” Bowens said about the cast. “It was like being a kid in a candy store. I was just in awe of them. I felt like a child just soaking everything in. As horrible as they’ve been portrayed on screen, they are the loveliest people ever. It actually shocks me that they can play such terrible characters ’cause so they are so lovely and they are so supportive.”

All eight episodes of Champion are streaming on Netflix. The show also stars Ray BLK and Jo Martin.