This City Is Ours actor James Nelson-Joyce was diagnosed with severe dyslexia at drama school.
James Nelson-Joyce had no idea he was battling dyslexia as a child.
BBC hit This City Is Ours is back with season two and star James Nelson-Joyce has revealed how he manages severe dyslexia and what he uses to help him prepare for his roles. The Liverpudlian actor, who plays Michael Kavanagh in the crime drama which has already been renewed for a third season, left school without any qualifications and did not discover he was dyslexic until he reached drama school.
Speaking to The Guardian in May 2025, he explained: “It wasn’t until I got to drama school that I got diagnosed. I was performing a speech for a play and the director noticed that I wasn’t picking up the punctuation. The school put me forward for assessment, which found that I was severely dyslexic.”
Since then, Nelson-Joyce has found practical ways to work through scripts, even if the process takes him a little longer. He said: “You learn ways around it. I find it easier to read off paper, rather than online. Coloured paper helps. I highlight the text, annotate it and break it down. It might take me a little longer but it’s just something I have to crack on with.”
It was his English teacher, Miss Griffiths, who inspired Nelson-Joyce to study acting at City of Liverpool College. Although reading aloud made him uncomfortable, putting on accents in class helped spark his interest in performing.
He previously told YMLiverpool.com: “I fancied my English teacher and the only way I could get her attention was by putting on an accent when she’d ask someone to read aloud in class. I didn’t know at the time that I was dyslexic and I felt uncomfortable reading, but I did it just to show off.”
Now, he is returning as Michael in the second series of This City Is Ours. Michael and Diana Williams, played by Hannah Onslow, begin the series together at their Spanish retreat before they are drawn back into the criminal underworld.
Questions surrounding Ricardo’s (Daniel Cerqueira) death and a new Colombian threat, Felipe (Álvaro Morte), await them. Discussing the new scripts, Nelson-Joyce said: “I was just desperate to read the next one. Each episode was left on a cliffhanger, and we didn’t know what was going to happen next. When I read the script for the final episode, I was shocked.”
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Nelson-Joyce has also credited acting legend Stephen Graham with championing his career. He first approached the Adolescence star in Nando’s when he was 23. Graham’s wife, Hannah, said he reminded her of a younger Graham and encouraged him to email about upcoming projects.
Although Nelson-Joyce was “too embarrassed” to get in touch, the actors later appeared together in Little Boy Blue, Time and The Virtues. They also play brothers Edward ‘Treacle’ Goodson and Henry ‘Sugar’ Goodson in Disney+’s A Thousand Blows.
Speaking to the BBC earlier this year about the second series, Nelson-Joyce said: “There’s just this synergy between us and I hope you see that on screen. We are quite similar and when I auditioned to play his brother, we turned up to do the chemistry read and we were wearing the exact same clothes. It was just very weird because we hadn’t planned it.”
He described Graham as “amazing”, adding: “He’s a regional voice, he’s a Scouse actor and it’s very important for young people to see someone likewise on the telly.”
James Nelson-Joyce’s life away from the screen
Nelson-Joyce was previously engaged to Coronation Street actress and jazz vocalist Olivia Frances Brown. The couple got engaged in August 2025 but separated in May 2026, citing demanding work commitments, reports the Express.
Brown made her soap debut as Jodie Ramsey in the Coronation Street and Emmerdale crossover episode. Nelson-Joyce publicly supported her casting on social media before their split. Before her soap appearance, she had featured in episodes of The Gathering, Archie and Boiling Point.
This City Is Ours series 2 begins on BBC One on Sunday at 9pm.
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