Akin Omotoso

Akin Omotoso (1974-) Actor, director and producer of stage, film and TV.

Biography

Born in Maiduguri, Nigeria, in 1974, he grew up in the university town of Ife, where he found his first love, writing. In 1992, his family moved to South Africa after his father, the academic, author and playwright Kole Omotoso (1943-2023), accepted a lectureship at the University of the Western Cape.

Omotoso completed his A-levels in South Africa, but struggled to get into university without a South African matric exemption. He enrolled for the only course at the University of Cape Town that did not require a matric exemption, the Performers Diploma in Speech and Drama.

Contribution to South African theatre, film, media and performance

Stage

Omotoso made his stage debut in the play Sunjata, directed by Mark Fleishman, and was awarded the Fleur du Cap Award for Most Promising Student for the performance in 1995. He also had roles in a few other stage productions.

After a few professional stage performances, including Twelfth Night, or What You Will, The Winter's Tale, Battle of the Black and the Dogs, he shifted to television and film as his preferred medium.

TV and film acting

After graduation Omotoso began to be cast in various South African TV series, including Soul City, Generations, Isidingo: The Need and Big Okes. He soon became a nationally recognised public figure.

His international experience includes appearances in A Reasonable Man (1999), Operation Delta Force 5: Random Fire (2000), Gums & Noses (2004), Lettre d'amour zoulou (2004), Lord of War (playing opposite Nicolas Cage, 2005), Shake Hands with the Devil (in the role of Paul Kagame, 2006), Blood Diamond (2006).

TV directing

Turning his hand to directing, he was responsible for the television series Jacob's Cross, broadcast on Africa Magic, M-Net and the SABC. between 2007 and 2013.

Film directing

Omotoso had used the money he had received for the 1995 Fleur du Cap Award to shift to acting, writing and directing for film and TV. His first work consisted of three short films, The Kiss of Milk, The Nightwalkers and The Caretaker,

In 1999 he began writing and directing independent films, releasing his first full-length film, God is African, in 2003, the year in which he, Robbie Thorpe and Kgomotso Matsunyane founded the production company T.O.M Pictures.

Another short film, Rifle Road, was selected for screening at the Cannes Film Festival in 2005 and the documentary Gathering the Scattered Cousins, made in tribute to his mother, was selected for screening at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival in 2006.

Other films he wrote and directed include and Tell Me Sweet Something[1], a film that earned him the best director award at the 2016 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards. Also directed Vaya (2016), Rise (2022).

He was selected as the Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year (Film) in 2007.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akin_Omotoso

Various entries in the NELM catalogue.

Interview with Bonita Boni published in the Daily Dispatch, 7 July 2007.

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