Netflix Kaos: Rakie Ayola brings her Cardiff accent to the world

When she first started her career, she said this would not have been allowed, adding: “It’s testimony to what’s going on TV and film-wise in Wales, right?

“That I’m allowed to do that, because for decades before they’d have me do any accent except a Cardiff accent, because nobody knows what it is.

“What is it? Where is it? What does it mean? It says a lot that people from all over the world suddenly know where that fits.”

But it was not just her voice she did not think fitted – it was people like her, whether it was on television, in films, or in the books she read.

She is one of Wales’ most successful actresses, having starred in dramas such as The Pact, and last year was given the prestigious Sian Phillips Award by Bafta Cymru, for her significant contribution to film and television.

But growing up, she rarely saw girls who looked like her on the screen, which affected how she felt about herself.

“So far as I knew, hair was meant to grow down,” she told BBC Radio Wales’ Books That Made Me.

“It was not meant to grow up and out like mine did. What kind of hair did that?”

It was the same with the books she read.