Part of the creative journey for me was not to come up the conventional route. I didn't go through drama school. I chose not to. I came from a very working-class area, a child of Nigerian immigrants.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I was discouraged at drama school, along with most of my peers.
Because I didn't go to drama school, I didn't start in the business with any toolbox apart from enthusiasm and instinct. I'd throw everything at a part and sometimes realise that I had hit my limits.
I always wanted to go to a drama school.
I never went to drama school, but I did learn a couple of things along the way.
My parents couldn't afford a full time drama school, but I basically just did every class I could do, and followed every drama interest I could. When I was 15 or 16 I did drama courses.
At the end of my first year, I realized I wanted to do more drama, so I actually started an extracurricular course outside of university. So I was at school all day writing, and in the evenings I'd go to drama school. So it was nonstop.
I never went to a drama school or anything. I just gave it my best shot, and everyone seemed to like it, so I carried on doing it.
When I decided that I might want to do acting for a living - I don't know where it really came from, since there was no school play or any of that - my mom gave me her blessing. I had to get a scholarship - that was the only way I could have gone to drama school.
Drama school was a lifeline for me, it saved me. I found it very nurturing - I just clung on.
I did a lot of acting at school and university, then I went to drama school. It was quite a normal route.