Five minutes with… Nozomi Tolworthy

Five minutes with… is our interview series that gives you the opportunity to learn more about the Inclusive Employers team and other inclusion and diversity professionals who are working to make inclusion a reality every day.

Here we learn more about Nozomi Tolworthy, Senior Inclusion and Diversity Consultant at Inclusive Employers.

1) Can you tell us how you came to be in your role?

I think inclusion work and creating safe spaces for belonging has always been something I’ve thought about, but didn’t always have the language to express – especially when I was younger during school days and often felt othered for my differences. As I grew up, I began to understand the roots of this exclusion and have tried to find ways so that no one else feels othered, and find ways that I can make a change!

I studied film and television studies at university, and during this I found myself increasingly interested in writing about representation within the industry. In my final year, I wrote about genre and race representation on screen in big blockbuster films, with a specific focus on orientalism. For my dissertation film, I created a short documentary exploring cross-cultural identity, ideas of home and how we navigate our sense of belonging. Through this, I realised that the discourse around inclusion is where my passion lies.

Since graduating with first-class honours, I have worked professionally both within creative roles as well as diversity and inclusion roles. My inclusion work has been mostly within the university and higher education sector in the UK, as well as a bit within the publishing industry.

I was keen to work across more industries and be able to bring my academic studies, professional expertise, as well as my own lived experiences where relevant, into wider consultancy work.

And that’s how I came to be a part of the team at Inclusive Employers!

2) Can you share an ‘inclusion moment’ with us – a time when you have felt included either at work or in your personal life?

As I joined Inclusive Employers, I very quickly saw how friendly my team is and how understanding my line manager is! Being part of the global team has been great as well, because I’ve not worked in many places previously where people check with me how to pronounce my name, or are genuinely interested in hearing more about my cultural background and where I grew up.

These everyday acts of inclusion have a huge impact for so many people, and it’s something we can all be doing more of!