Josette Bushell-Mingo was born in London and trained at the Barking College of Technology. She started her career with Kaboodle Theatre Company, for which she co-directed two shows: Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge and Shakespeare's King Lear. Her non-Shakespearean classical credits include Cassandra in Euripides's The Women of Troy in the Olivier Theatre at the NT in 1995, directed by Annie Castledine. Bushell-Mingo received the Plays and Players 1992 Player of the Year for her RSC performances in David Thacker's Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Virtuoso and The Thebans. Bushell-Mingo was named Best Actress at the Manchester Evening News awards for her performance in the Contact Theatre, Manchester's From the Mississippi Delta, an award she shared with Joy Richardson and Pauline Black.

Photograph is of Clare Holman and Josette Bushell-Mingo in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona in 1991.