Her mother, Azar, is Iranian and her father, Osei, is Ghanaian. They divorced when she was a child. She has an older sister, Leila, and a younger brother, Dominic.Although her mother is Muslim and her father Methodist, Agyeman grew up to be a practising Roman Catholic. She attended Our Lady's Convent RC High School, a Catholic school in Stamford Hill and during the summer of 1996 she studied at the Anna Scher Theatre School in Islington. She studied performing arts and drama at Middlesex University, graduating in 2000. She has martial arts skills, which prompted speculation that she would bring a more physical approach to the role of the Doctor's companion. The tattoo she has on her upper arm is symbolic of her ancestry, containing the Persian word "raha", meaning "free", under an image of