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O-T Fagbenle

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O. T. Fagbenle (also known as O-T and OT) is a British actor. He has appeared in several films, stage and television productions.


File:MEN awards.jpg O-T Fagbenle receiving the M.E.N award for Best Actor.


Early life

Born in London to a Nigerian father and a British mother, Fagbenle moved to Spain as a child and started learning the alto saxophone. Within a year he was playing for the South Coast Jazz Band and toured the Edinburgh Festival.[1][2] He moved back to England where he continued to perform as a musician in big bands at the Wembley Arena and the Royal Albert Hall.[1]

Acting career

Theatre

He started acting at the age of 14 for the Ritual Theatre Arts and was given the lead role in an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Macbeth, performing at international venues and at central London's Bloomsbury Theatre. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts[1] and graduated early to make his graduate debut at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Le Blanc's in 2001.

Fagbenle continued his Shakespearean roles performing in Romeo and Juliet as Mercutio in a national tour culminating at the Hong Kong Arts Festival 2004 the evening telegraph said of his performance 'O T Fagbenle achieves the impossible by almost overshadowing the young lovers with his inspired performance of Mercutio'.[3]

Fagbenle was soon offered his first all out lead. Outstanding reviews[4][5][6][7] preceded a M.E.N. Theatre award for best actor in a leading role[8] for his portrayal of a man claiming to be Sidney Poitier's son in John Guare's award-winning play Six Degrees of Separation.

In 2008, Fagbenle flew to Paris for world-renowned theatre director Peter Brook, to help workshop and develop Brook's international production of Tierno Bokar.

Fagbenle played the role of Sportin' Life, in Sir Trevor Nunn's award winning production of Porgy and Bess at the Savoy Theatre in the West End of London (a part played by Cab Calloway in the opera and Sammy Davis Jr. in the feature film). [9] Fagbenle received outstanding reviews across the board,[10][11][12][13][14] Variety magazine's review remarked 'There are moments everything take wing as a musical, mostly whenever Fagbenle's splendidly serpentine, easeful Sportin' Life is around. Light on his feet, his every moment is poised and polished.' [15]

Film

Fagbenle has also appeared in Academy award-winning director Anthony Minghella's movie Breaking and Entering[16] with Jude Law and Juliette Binoche.

Fagbenle portrayed Sean, an American television star who has an on-screen relationship with Stacey Dash, the self-obsessed Brianna in Amy Heckerling's I Could Never Be Your Woman.[16]

Television

Fagbenle starred in a sitcom for the BBC called Grownups and the British TV series Agatha Christie's Marple. He also played 'Other Dave' in the two part Doctor Who story Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead.

Fagbenle starred in two dramas for the BBC,[16] including the role of Walter Tull in Walter's War, a biopic of the first mixed-heritage officer in the British Army in which he again garnered outstanding international reviews [17][18][19][20]

In January 2010 Fagbenle appeared as Chris in the BBC One flagship show Material Girl,[16] starring Dervla Kirwan (Doctor Who) and Lenora Crichlow (Being Human, Sugar Rush). Off the back of his performance he went on to be cast in the American romantic comedy 'Double Wedding' and a lead in the film adaptation of the best selling Mark Billingham novel 'Sleepyhead'.[16]

After a successful production by 24 producer Stephen Hopkins, a sequel of sleepyhead was commissioned again with O-T as a lead but this time starring opposite Emmy award winning actress Sandra Oh.

Radio

For several months in 2004 he took the part of Kwame in the BBC World Service radio soap opera Westway.

He has performed multiple times for the BBC including the lead role in Six Degrees of Separation, playing Marvin Gaye in a biopic, and two roles in the BBC Radio adaptation of The Color Purple, which went on to win the Sony Radio Academy Awards for Drama in 2009.[21]

Writing

In 2008 he authored an article which appeared in a double page spread in the national Nigerian newspaper The Guardian about the life and times of Walter Tull.

Music

Along with a starring actor credit, Fagbenle composed the music and penned the lyrics for several songs for the NBC drama Quarterlife, created by Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick.[22]

Awards

Fagbenle has been honoured by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (of which Queen Elizabeth II is patron) by being included in the 100 faces of RADA along with Sir Anthony Hopkins, Clive Owen and Sir John Gielgud.[2]

Fagbenle was awarded Best Actor in a Leading role at the M.E.N. awards for his performance in Six Degrees of Separation.[23]

In October 2006, Fagbenle was greeted with critical acclaim for his performance in Trevor Nunn's Tony Award–winning world premiere of Porgy and Bess The Musical.

In 2008 he was the recipient of an Outstanding Achievement Award at the 13th African film Awards.[24]

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ a b c [1] ashbee.net, 15 March 2001.
  2. ^ a b [2] imdb.com, 11 November 2004.
  3. ^ [3] findarticles.com, 13 November 2003.
  4. ^ [4] thestage.com, 10 May 2004.
  5. ^ [5] independent.com, 27 April 2004.
  6. ^ [6] guardian.co.uk, 27 April 2004.
  7. ^ [7] reviewsgate.com, 26 april 2004.
  8. ^ [8] britishtheatreguide.com, 9 December 2004.
  9. ^ O-T Fagbenle London.Broadway.com, 7 February 2007.
  10. ^ [9] africanmoviestar.com, 10 March 2010.
  11. ^ [10] reviewsgate.com, 22 november 2006.
  12. ^ [11] guardian.co.uk, 10 november 2006.
  13. ^ [12] indielondon.com, 10 november 2006.
  14. ^ [13] British theatre guide.com, 10 november 2006.
  15. ^ [14] Variety.com, 12 november 2006.
  16. ^ a b c d e [15] imdb.com, 15 March 2001.
  17. ^ [16] torontoist.com, 23 November 2009.
  18. ^ [17] thescotsman.com, 8 November 2008.
  19. ^ [18] telegraph.co.uk, 8 November 2008.
  20. ^ [19] thecustardtv.com, 11 November 2008.
  21. ^ [20] bbc.co.uk, 24 October 2009.
  22. ^ [21] quarterlife.com, 18 September 2008.
  23. ^ [22] citylife.co.uk, 16 March 2010.
  24. ^ [http://www.modernghana.com/movie/3414/3/night-of-glitz-as-african-movie-award-holds-in-lon.html ] modernghana.com, 27 November 2008.

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