Ryan Russell felt "apprehensive" about his Yorkshire accent when he was trying to break into the acting industry.
Ryan Russell
The 'Coronation Street' star - who is originally from Huddersfield and now lives in Manchester, where the ITV soap is filmed - admitted he was worried his dialect would count against him in the acting world.
He told the Yorkshire Post newspaper: "At one point I did feel London was the destination and I was a bit apprehensive about my accent.
"You don't really see black males with Yorkshire accents on television."
Ryan - who joined the 'Corrie' cast as Michael Bailey last year - has acted on the stage and in adverts, and spent time as a presenter on CBeebies.
Shows such as 'Game of Thrones' - which features actors using regional English accents on screen - helped him realise his twang shouldn't be an issue.
He added: "You can have a northern accent and you are just as good as anyone down south."
The actor joined in 2019 with his on-screen Bailey family - couple Edison (Trevor Michael Georges) and Aggie (Lorna Laidlaw) and his brother James (Nathan Graham) - as the soap's first black family to be introduced together.
This week, Ryan's latest storyline saw his character Michael resort to desperate measures to stop his partner Grace Vickers (Kate Spencer) from taking his daughter Tianna to Spain.
He took the child to stop them leaving Weatherfield, but his action saw him arrested for child abduction.
However, in a shock twist police later revealed Grace had been lying and Tianna is not her child.
Opening up on the pressure he felt stepping into such a significant and deep role, he said: "It was daunting at first, for myself, to play that character with such emotional depth, for my first TV (role), and with it being Corrie I thought, I hope I can do it justice. Everyone was so accommodating."