If you have yet to watch Industry, I have a few words of warning: do not watch if your anxiety levels are quick to rise, do not watch if you like your plots neat and characters tidy and absolutely do not watch with your parents. Which is to say that it is brilliant, blistering television; smart, spiky, shocking and scorching-hot appointment viewing.
The HBO/BBC show, which wraps its fourth season tonight, follows the plotting and scheming of a sprawling cast of characters in the world of finance. At the centre of it all is Marisa Abela as Yasmin Kara-Hanani, now the marvellously named Lady Muck following her marriage to Sir Henry Muck (played, brilliantly, by Kit Harrington). Damaged, ruthless, vicious and vulnerable, she is complex; a walking contradiction swaddled in expensive knitwear.
"She’s a provocateur. She likes to shake up a room," says Abela, over a coffee in East London before her Who What Wear UK cover shoot. Thoughtful, engaged and with a sparkling laugh, in person, Abela shares Yasmin's charisma, though none of her character’s snooty brusqueness. Saluting the "richness" of the character, Abela adds: "She has intense moments of darkness and intense moments of levity and humour. That keeps people guessing with her but also draws them in. ... She presents as a predator, but she is the ultimately well-evolved prey. She completely fits into her environment in order to survive."
An unknown 22-year-old when she got the part of Yasmin (Abela was still at drama school, RADA, when she auditioned), the role has not only won her plaudits, including Best Leading Actress at the 2025 BAFTA Television Awards, but catapulted her to being-stopped-in-the-street fame. There was also her turn as Amy Winehouse in Back to Black, and a part in Stephen Soderbergh’s espionage thriller Black Bag alongside Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender. The day before our interview, she was doing a new play reading with James Norton, whilst she’s also currently filming action fantasy Highlander with Russell Crowe and Henry Cavill.
Given this schedule, downtime has been somewhat limited for Abela over the past few months. "I just went on my honeymoon. That was probably the last time I was like, phone down, whatever. My husband [actor Jamie Bogyo, whom she met at RADA] and I really love to travel. I train a lot, I read a lot." She loves that Highlander is a really physical job. "It’s a lot of training in a martial-arts-y-jujitsu way, which is really fun, and it takes the sort of 'I am exercising' thing out of it; you just realise after two hours that you are." Abela is also a big Real Housewives stan (New York, Beverly Hills and Salt Lake City are her jam, and she has hung out with Dorinda Medley in New York), so she's palpably buzzing over the just-announced news that the OG New York crew are getting back together for a TV return.
Although there are enough rumours and nastiness in any episode of Industry to make even the bitchiest Housewife blush, season 4 has a particular potent sting in its examination of issues around sexual exploitation and consent, highlighted by Yasmin’s boundary-busting relationship with young assistant Hayley, played superbly by Kiernan Shipka. Viewers have been quick to note parallels between Yasmin and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Abela says she understands the cultural fascination we have with "women that fill up spaces, that are so close to power—especially power that feels slightly sour", like the current White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt. Sometimes rightfully, sometimes not, there’s a deep distrust of these women, she says. "We’re like, how do you reconcile this to yourself? We don’t necessarily ask the same question of men. We might [ask], 'How do you sleep at night?', but we know how they sleep at night; they’re fine! It feels like women ought to have higher social [and] moral responsibility than men."
If Industry is unflinching in its exploration of the ugliness of ruthless ambition, off-camera is a different story. "It’s a really fun set. We really are all just best friends working together," says Abela. She loves working with Harrington ("We’re so fearless with one another."), and co-star Myha’la was a bridesmaid at her wedding last year.
Abela grew up in Rottingdean near Brighton with her brother and mother (she and Abela’s father, a director, divorced when Abela was young but remain close). To make ends meet, Abela’s mum, a TV and stage actress, took on extra jobs, including a call centre role. "I was really lucky to grow up in an incredibly creative household with a super-talented actress as a mother who [also] had to work other jobs. That did not look like failure to me; it looked like being an artist and making sacrifices for something she believed in."
Winning a place at the prestigious public school Roedean on a drama scholarship, Abela was introduced to the world of the 1% that Yasmin occupies. "I think it was really useful for [portraying] Yasmin in terms of understanding what privilege really looks like. No one who's entitled thinks they’re entitled," she says. "Those kids never walk into a room and think, 'How embarrassing I’m here,'" she notes, adding that she thinks everyone has a right to that kind of unshakeable self-confidence.
In a crinkled plaid shacket, loafers and a floor-length coat, in person, Abela reads more low-key cool girl than high-maintenance aristo. But, given all the premieres and award ceremonies, fashion is an important part of her off-screen work. "I really love it when it works. I feel like it’s all about trying to find your voice in your clothes," she says, acknowledging that the tone of different projects calls for a tailored approach. "It’s all about calibrating everything with intention. You can tell a bit of a story [with the clothes]."
Red carpets, however, are much more exposing for Abela than being on camera, even compared to a role like Yasmin that requires her to really go there without inhibition. "I think the worst I’ve ever felt about my body is when I was, like, 16, going to a party and [I] wanted a boy to fancy me. Even now, the hardest I’ve trained to be in a specific shape—other than Back to Black, which was a completely different thing—was for my wedding," she says. "I will train or eat or whatever in a different way if I’m going on holiday than I will if I’m doing a sex scene on Industry. I don’t feel that vain because I don’t feel [a] responsibility to an audience to look a certain way to be naked on camera."
In the early days of Industry, she remembers talking to Lena Dunham (who directed the pilot episode) about whether Yasmin is "one of those girls" who pushes food around her plate. And what did they decide? "I think Yasmin eats whatever the fuck she wants!" she laughs. "There’s no scarcity mindset when it comes to Yasmin; I think she has a high opinion of herself, I don’t think she suffers with self-confidence issues [or] what she looks like, and that’s so freeing to be able to play."
Photographer: Charlotte Hadden at Together Associates
Stylist: Sophie Cloarec
Hair Stylist: Gareth Bromell at AFrame Agency
Makeup Artist: Neil Young at AFrame Agency
Manicurist: Ami Streets
Editor-in-Chief: Jane McFarland
Managing Director: Hannah Almassi
Art Director: Natalia Sztyk
Executive Director, Entertainment: Jessica Baker
Movement Director: Liam John
Writer: Laura Jordan
Video: Natasha Wilson
Photography Assistant: Lucy Rooney, Lily Sadin
Digital Technician: George Zenko
Styling Assistant: Layla Desjardins
Production: Town Productions