Sofia Akel
For Black History Month, Future Figures recognises those members who are giving back to the Black community, and a spotlight on amazing individuals making Black history now.
As Part of Black History Month 1Xtra once again celebrates its Future Figures. Future Figures is a way to recognise those members who are giving back to the Black community, and a time to celebrate the countless acts that are taking place up and down the country today by those who are helping to create the black history of tomorrow.
Sofia Akel is an award-winning historian, producer, and lecturer of Black British history, recognised by British Vogue as a Force for Change, Adidas x Guap's 30 under 30, and The Evening Standard Changemakers to Know and more. Her work has been spotlighted in the international press, including Channel 4, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and ITV News, Sky History, and Al-Jazeera.
Akel’s career places Black communities as protagonists of our own narratives, bridging academia and creative industries. In 2021, she founded and lectured on her university’s first Black Studies module, Creativity, Resistance and Joy in the Capital, which fused arts, archives, music, and literature to explore Black British history. Intergenerational lectures featured oral histories from civil rights icon Leila Hassan Howe, DJ workshops exploring Black British music with Eddie Otchere, documentary film-making with BAFTA-winning producer Tobi Kyeremateng and more. Akel was later appointed Honorary Research Fellow at Lancaster University for her work in bringing Black British history into universities, platforming and unearthing its richness beyond narratives of oppression. She is writing her first book, based on her modules - published by Hachette in 2026.
Early in her career, Akel conducted groundbreaking research on institutional racism in higher education, leading to Β£15 million in investments, diversification of university boards, and new decolonisation standards. She is also developing a scholarship programme to increase the number of Black, working-class history students, in collaboration with a top-10 UK university.
In 2020, Akel founded the Free Books Campaign, a non-profit that has distributed over 10,000 books by authors of colour to those in need. The initiative, which includes partnerships with Marcus Rashford’s Bookclub, TATE, #MerkyBooks, Vintage Books and more, launched an annual free literature festival. In 2024 the Free Books Festival sold out 3,000 free tickets, with a programme of over 50 events, headlined by artist SAMPHA.
In recent years, she has worked across film, music videos, and documentaries, including specialist casting consultancy, executive producing a documentary on Black girlhood and archive producing on UKMVA-nominated and Tribeca Film Festival-selected projects with Kano, Jords, and GRM.
