Jimmy Akingbola a national tour. He played opposite Roger Lloyd-Pack and Shaun Evans in Joe Penhall's award-winning play; it was directed by Kathy Burke. Akingbola later went on to star in "The Cut" at the Donmar Warehouse opposite Ian McKellen, directed by Michael Grandage. Additional roles include Akingbola playing anti-hero Jimmy Porter in the John Osborne play of "Look Back in Anger" at the Jermyn Street Theatre in July 2008; he was the first black actor to play the role. The same year he played the title role of "Othello" for the company Frantic Assembly, which received a TMA Award. Akingbola’s television
John Osborne he wrote, "It is the best young play of its decade". Harold Hobson of "The Sunday Times" called Osborne "a writer of outstanding promise". During production, the married Osborne began a relationship with Mary Ure, and would divorce his wife, Pamela Lane, to marry Ure in 1957. The play became an enormous commercial success, transferring to the West End and to Broadway, touring to Moscow and a film version was released in May 1959 with Richard Burton and Mary Ure in the leading roles. The play turned Osborne from a struggling playwright into a wealthy and famous angry young man