Key Takeaways
- Myha’la said she “sealed” her own fate on The Celebrity Traitors by defending Richard E. Grant, switching her vote after they exposed him as a Traitor, and winking at him as he exited.
- She rejected racism as the sole explanation for her banishment but argued that unconscious racial and cultural bias can make her authentic behavior look suspicious to people unfamiliar with Black American women.
- As the only American in a largely British cast, the Industry star defended her fellow players while stressing that social games built on reading tone, body language, and personality can amplify cultural gaps.
Myha’la doesn’t blame racism for leaving The Celebrity Traitors. Rather, she’s offering a more complicated argument about what happens when a Black American woman enters a British social game built around deciding whose behavior feels trustworthy—and whose does not.
According to Deadline, the Industry star was banished after casting suspicion on herself during Richard E. Grant’s downfall. Myha’la had defended Grant before switching her vote to banish him, giving him a wink as she voted. The gesture, then, quickly became evidence that she knew more than she admitted.
When entrepreneur Chantel Sachanna later claimed on Instagram that Myha’la was eliminated “because you are BLACK,” the 30-year-old actor resisted that explanation.
“I sealed my own fate!” Myha’la replied. “And that early in the game there is VERY little to grasp on to, and I gave them…a lot.”
But taking responsibility for her gameplay did not end the conversation for her. Myha’la also addressed how race and cultural familiarity can influence a competition in which players constantly read one another’s tone, body language and personality for signs of deception.
“Unconscious racial and cultural bias exists in this game where my authenticity or honesty or the ways in which I choose to express myself look suspicious to people who are unfamiliar with people like me,” she wrote.
As the only American in a largely British cast—apart from what she jokingly called “Honorary British National Treasure Jerry Hall”—Myha’la entered the castle with more than one cultural gap working against her. On The Traitors, those interpretations are the game: being considered too loud, too quiet, too defensive or too composed can be enough to put someone’s name on the slate.
Myha’la said she had already noticed the pattern as a fan before agreeing to compete. Still, she defended the people who voted against her.
“I’m not saying it’s right, I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist, but I do have to defend my dear friends on this show who in no way consciously put bias on me because of my race,” she wrote.
Describing her banishment solely as racism, she added, was not “a fair or complete assessment of what really happened in my case.”
That tension also follows her most famous role. On HBO’s Industry, Myha’la plays Harper Stern, another Black American navigating a high-pressure British environment where ambition, cultural fluency and belonging are constantly judged.
