We value the steady tone and ensemble work in the programmes Destiny Ekaragha helps direct. Her television work gives us good reasons to keep watching, though shared credits make a distinctive personal style harder to identify.
Fi1m perspective
In Furious (2026), the houses of the wealthy have acres of pale floor, little on the walls and crimes sitting in plain view. We found that ordinary, even lighting unsettling: the violence happens without the reassuring distance of a shadowy setting. Ekaragha shares the eight episodes with directors Brian Kirk, Karena Evans and Cory Finley, yet the look stays consistent. That steadiness is worth valuing, even in a revenge thriller that runs two episodes too long.
Her early shorts, including Tight Jeans (2008), led to a feature debut in 2014 concerned with multicultural British experience. The move into television with Danny and the Human Zoo (2015) led to work across comedy and drama. She directed four episodes of the second series of The End of the F*ing World (2019). That is a substantial stretch of a programme, requiring sustained judgement about tone, even when the characters and premise are already established.
Ted Lasso (2020) offers another setting for that work, with Ekaragha directing two episodes of its third series in 2023. Jason Sudeikis and a responsive ensemble make its warmth persuasive, even when the jokes arrive irregularly. The cultural clashes can feel laboured, and affection for the characters does not make those passages any sharper. The actors do enough to make the patience worthwhile, but our recommendation comes with a warning against expecting the comedy to be as reliable as the company.
On Furious, cinematographers Doug Emmett and Brian Lannin provide the flat lighting, and production designer Chris Trujillo gives those houses their pale, sparsely decorated interiors. Ariel Marx’s restrained strings sit beneath the dialogue and stop when Alice works, allowing the action to hold our attention without musical prompting. Steve Welch, Ralph Jean-Pierre, Katie Ennis and Julie Kreinik share the editing, although the series still needs a firmer cut. These are collective achievements and shortcomings; we cannot sensibly assign each one to Ekaragha, whose contribution is part of a coherent whole. Start with Ted Lasso for the ensemble, provided the occasional laboured joke will not spoil the evening.
Biography
Destiny Ekaragha is a British film and television director. She began her career with short films including Tight Jeans (2008), The Park (2009) and Chance Meeting (2013), several of which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival. Her debut feature Gone Too Far! (2013), adapted from Bola Agbaje’s play, premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and received a UK cinema release; it made her the third black British woman to direct a theatrically released feature film in the UK.
Ekaragha was named Best British Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival in 2013 and a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit in 2014. She has since directed episodes of television series including The End of the F*ing World (2019), Y: The Last Man (2021), Paper Girls (2022), Kindred (2022), Fellow Travelers (2023), Ted Lasso (2023) and Furious (2026).
