Toyah Willcox is a true British icon with a career spanning over 51 years as a singer, actress, and writer. Bursting onto the scene in the late ’70s and ’80s as a punk powerhouse, she quickly became a household name, loved for her fearless charisma and boundless talent. With 13 top 40 singles, 25 albums, two books, and roles in over 40 stage plays and 20 feature films, Toyah’s CV is jaw-dropping. Her hits like It’s A Mystery and I Want to Be Free made her an ’80s legend, while platinum albums Anthem and The Changeling cemented her status.
She has won numerous awards and nominations from singing to writing to acting. In 2001 Toyah was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Central England in Birmingham. In 2018 Paul McCartney awarded Toyah a LIPA Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts Companionship for Outstanding Achievement in music, drama, performance and media.
Toyah was awarded a star on the Kings Heath Walk of Fame and a star on Birmingham’s Broad Street Walk of Stars recognising her achievements. She has been an inspiration and role model for generations through her iconic hit singles, film and theatre roles and steadfast commitment to always being individual and creative.
From punk princess to cult stage actress, Toyah Willcox is a uniquely gifted performer and an inextinguishable flame. Charismatic, outspoken and impossible to categorise, she is one of Britain’s beloved household names – an award-winning rock legend as well as a much-loved stage/screen actress and music composer. Toyah has amassed thirteen top 40 singles, recorded twenty-five albums, written two books, appeared in over forty stage plays, acted in over twenty feature films and presented hundreds of television programmes.
Toyah released a new studio reworking of her album In The Court Of The Crimson Queen in April 2019, which charted in the UK Top 20 physical albums chart, Top 10 Scottish album chart and overall Top 75 UK album chart. Written and arranged by Toyah Willcox and Simon Darlow, In The Court Of The Crimson Queen is a collection of beautifully crafted songs, thought provoking lyrics and a rally cry to forever living life out loud, proud and heard. The album’s fifteen tracks explore life, love, empowerment and wonderment including epic anthem Dance In The Hurricane, currently sending audiences wild in gigs across the entire UK and Sensational, recently used in a high profile television advertising campaign. Toyah: Solo, a 7 CD + DVD anthology of collected works by Toyah was released in February 2020. It features six studio albums (Minx, Desire, Prostitute, Ophelia’s Shadow, Take The Leap!, Velvet Lined Shell) alongside 44 bonus tracks, including rarities, B-sides, collaborations, and several unreleased tracks. In June 2020 Toyah released Mesmerised, which compiles rarities and remixes spanning 1985-1994. Toyah’s most recent musical releases are the remastered 40th Anniversary edition of her 1981 hit EP Four From Toyah, Sensational (Posh Redux), Crimson Queen: Rhythm Deluxe Edition, Brave New World: Special EP, Latex Messiah (Viva La Rebel In You), Live At Drury Lane and The Changeling: Super Deluxe Edition.
In 1977 celebrated and provocative film director Derek Jarman offered Toyah the role of ‘Mad’ in seminal punk epic Jubilee. Toyah recently revisited Jubilee, starring as Queen Elizabeth II in an acclaimed stage adaptation which captured the essence of the film and had a majority genderfluid cast. Toyah teamed up with Derek Jarman again to play Miranda in his innovative version of The Tempest, which won her a nomination as Best Newcomer in the Evening Standard Awards. Toyah’s other notable film roles have included acting alongside such luminaries as Katherine Hepburn in The Corn is Green and Laurence Olivier in The Ebony Tower. Toyah also played ‘Monkey’ in the long-idolised Quadrophenia, celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2019 with a series of special events and projects which involved the entire cast including Phil Daniels, Sting and Leslie Ash.
The hit singles It’s A Mystery, I Want to Be Free, Brave New World and platinum-selling albums Anthem and The Changeling confirmed her status as one of the most significant talents of the 1980s.
In 1982 she won the Best Female Singer at the British Rock & Pop Awards, who went on to become The Brits. On Christmas Eve 1981 Toyah’s concert at Drury Lane Theatre Royal was broadcast live on BBC2 as The Old Grey Whistle Test to viewing figures of over 10 million.
2016 saw Toyah’s first musical as co-composer open in the open air Scoop London rock musical production of Dostoyevsky’s Crime & Punishment.
Toyah’s most recent films include the award-winning short film Weightless, The Ghosts Of Borley Rectory, To Be Someone, Give Them Wings and the acclaimed cult Brit film Ahhhhhhhh!, directed by Steve Oram and co-starring Julian Rhind-Tutt, Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt. Toyah has a cameo role in award winning British thriller In Extremis for which Toyah and Simon Darlow co-wrote and produced the end credits song Our Hearts Still Beat; Toyah played the wife of a character played by Harvey Keitel in Lies We Tell, directed by Mitu Misra and co-starring Gabriel Byrne. Toyah also had film roles in Hound – The Life of the poet Francis Thompson, the British horror SwipeRight (for which she won Best Supporting Actress at The Fortean Film Festival 2021), and British sci-fi movie Invasion Planet Earth for which she also sings the outro theme song Step Into The New World.
Toyah released her 28th studio album on 27th August 2021. It reached No. 1 in all regional and online charts, No. 22 in the official charts. On 8th October 2021 the movie The Ghost Of Borley Rectory has its official release for which Toyah was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Romford Film Festival.
She is a regular contributor on Channel 5’s Greatest Pop Videos, 80s Greatest Hits and 90s Greatest Hits series – a visual celebration of the best music through the decades. In 2022, Toyah appeared in Channel 4’s brand new show Fame In The Family and in 2023 she won the Great British Sewing Bee: Celebrity Christmas Special on BBC One.
During the first lockdown of 2020 Toyah started to produce short films for her YouTube Channel: Toyah YouTube, that not only gathered a worldwide following but also an extraordinary amount of press attention across the world, regularly being featured in Rolling Stone Magazine. Based from her kitchen at home, Toyah and her husband Robert Fripp posted films every Sunday lunchtime featuring their music performances. The style is quintessentially British humour but also adding a creative quality that has seen Toyah influencing trends around the world. In the past 3 years Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch has amassed over 120 million views worldwide, leading to the couple touring and performing at numerous festivals in 2023 and 2024, including the iconic Glastonbury Festival and Isle of Wight Festival. To put it simply… they have become a phenomenon in their own lunchtime!
Toyah is currently taking part in the 20th anniversary series of Strictly Come Dancing for BBC One.
