Andoh speaks on her Ghanaian heritage and representing Africa on and off screen.

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“My name,” Adjoa Andoh tells Shondaland with the signature swagger in her voice Bridgerton fans know and love, “is ubiquitous for Ghanaians. Adjoa means ‘girl born on a Monday,’ and Andoh is a pretty common surname. It’s as if I was Irish, and I was called ​​Seamus O’Flynn.”

Andoh, born in the U.K. to a Brit mum and a Ghanaian dad, may be a bit tongue in cheek about the ordinariness of her name, but she’s well aware how serious and special her name, or more to the point, her presence, is for Ghanaians and Africans across the diaspora.

As a woman of African ancestry on one of TV’s biggest shows, playing the tour de force that is Lady Danbury no less, Andoh offers viewers on the continent a type of representation with more weight than the usual: Andoh is a symbol of strength, hope, and future possibility for sons and daughters of the economic and cultural powerhouse whose influence is often overlooked in the global pop culture consciousness outside of music.

“When Shonda decided she wanted to situate young Lady Danbury as coming from West Africa, which has quite a tradition of posh people joining with posh people in [Europe], it’s not fantasy, as some people have said,” says Andoh. “Historians agree there are different iterations of a Black African heritage experience happening throughout Europe in the 1800s. And for me as a viewer, an actor, as a cultural consumer, for Shonda to bring that historical element in, it’s like, ‘Thank you. We can be in the story.’”

One need look no further than their own phones for proof of how many more people are equally as thankful. Ghanaians, Nigerians, and South Africans were among those who showed up and showed out heavy at the South African Bridgerton premiere in May, dazzling in ornate outfits representative of African flair, creativity, and pride. Andoh herself knows how integral Lady Danbury’s clothing is to the character and what she means, which is why Andoh collaborated closely with costume designer John Glaser to make Danbury’s garb speak silently.

LAURENCE CENDROWICZ//NETFLIX

Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte and Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury in season three of Bridgerton.

“John Glaser is fantastic,” says Andoh. “He’s very collaborative, and I loved working with him. Lady Danbury embodies a bit of masculine; the hats are very much like the men’s hats. And she’s got the cane, which I think of as a bit of swag. In season one, there’s a molding; it has an elephant under a palanquin, which is a sign of power, so I always have Lady Danbury holding a bit of Africa. And in season three, she has got Gye Nyame in her jewelry designs, which is an Adinkra symbol that means ‘Except for God, fear nothing.’ So, I tried to go both ways with it: for her to be celebrated in Africa, and also have Africa with her in the show.”

Lady Danbury needs all the authoritative accessories she can pile on in season three, as her biggest storyline sees her squaring off against the most formidable type of foe: family. The arrival of Lord Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis), Lady Danbury’s brother, to the ton shakes up the delicately arranged position she’s crafted for herself in society — and Andoh is thrilled by the drama and conflict his landing creates. Structurally speaking, Lady Danbury has a precarious place in the Bridgerton ecosystem, and she knows it: She has no husband, no title, and no real leverage save her knowledge, her proximity to the queen, and her funds. Having Lord Marcus Anderson around threatens her position and sense of identity.

“If you look at the origin story,” Andoh says, referring to Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, which revealed how a young Agatha Danbury, played by Arsema Thomas, came to her position, “we see the fragility she pulled herself out from. All she has is a certain amount of knowledge, which she can flex. She’s made her currency knowledge. So, when the brother turns up, he just knocks over the pack of cards. She feels that he sold her out to her father and condemned her to this life that she didn’t want to have.”

To boot, Lord Marcus seems to be sweet on Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell), Danbury’s friend, with whom Danbury has an, uh, interesting past. “And, oh yeah, by the way, I had an affair with her father? Danbury is like, ‘Get away from my friend!’ She doesn’t trust that it is a safe place [with Marcus around].”

As deeply as she’s invested herself into making the Danbury-Anderson story her own to sell it on-screen, Andoh found that the season’s main storyline — Pen and Colin’s friends-to-lovers track — hit closer to home. She has been married to her husband, Howard Cunnell, since 2001, and they too started as pals. Andoh, a seasoned, well-known actor in the U.K. whose impressive CV includes roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing with BBC Radio for some 30 years, and even playing Richard III just last year, met Cunnell in a casual meet-cute that blossomed into a partnership. “One of my friends who was on the board of my theater company was going for a part-time job with a guy that ran the bookshop [downstairs],” she recalls. This was the early 1990s. “She came upstairs and said, ‘He’s quite tasty looking; come have a look.’ And there he was. He became my good friend, and he gave me discounts on books. Then he became my football buddy and then lover. I think there’s something about finding somebody that you share common interests with, somebody that’s valued you as a person and friend before the rest, because I think sometimes people go, ‘I love you; now change,’ and that’s never gonna fly.”

Andoh says she’s excited for fans to see how all the storylines explode and get resolved by the end of season three, but she is perhaps proudest of the impact she’s having globally. When she can, she goes to Ghana with her father, a journalist who came to the U.K. in the 1950s who’s now in his 90s and travels from the U.K. to sojourn in Ghana during the winter. (“Like any sensible person,” she jokes.) She’d just been there a few weeks prior when we spoke — and is often equal parts shocked and amused at how she’s received. “I was doing the shopping, and of course, it’s like 33 degrees [Celsius, or 91 degrees Fahrenheit] with humidity; I’m holding two bags. And suddenly, this car just stops, the door opens, this woman runs out of the car, runs across to me, hugs me, and says, ‘You don’t understand what you are doing for us. We are so proud of you.’ She cries a bit more, gets back in, and then drives off. And then, in some parts of Ghana, they don’t have TV, so they don’t know me from a hole in the ground.”

As spotty as her visibility might be in some parts of Africa, Andoh is nonetheless using her position to shine even more light on the continent. She’s a patron for Fairtrade, an organization that works with farming co-ops, governments, and businesses to make trade fairer. She’s also an ambassador for Tree Aid, which helps people in Africa grow trees and restore land to fight poverty and climate change.

“I’ve always been a huge advocate for inclusivity in all its manifestations,” she says. “But Bridgerton has given me the opportunity to have more impact. I can be noisier because of Bridgerton. I’m very conscious of Lady Danbury being part of a door-widening. That’s important.”