O-T Fagbenle

Currently: Making his West End debut as Sporting Life, the drug-dealing slickster whose scheming ways doom the happiness of the title couple in Trevor Nunn’s production of the Gershwin operatic classic Porgy and Bess. “I was filming something in New York and was considering relocating there,” Fagbenle remembers, “when my agent called me and said there were a couple of good auditions to go for in London that included Porgy and Bess. I knew of the show and some of the songs, but I had no idea of the plot, so they sent me a script.” He read it and was immediately drawn to the part. “Sometimes you have to struggle to get into the mindset of the person you’re going to play,” he says, “but as soon as I read it, I knew this dude.” The audition process was a long and daunting one. “The last time I’d sung onstage was in a show called Ragamuffin that toured Britain,” Fagbenle recalls, ”but that was reggae and rapping, which is quite a different style to West End singing.” He credits having a “strong vision” for the role with his success in winning the part.

Hometown: Fagbenle was born and bred in London, but he’s also lived elsewhere. “I consider myself a Londoner. I was born here at University College Hospital, right opposite RADA where I went to drama school, but I spent a lot of my childhood abroad. We were a nomadic family, so I lived in Nigeria and Spain growing up. We came back when I was around 11, and I have been here ever since.”

Hooked on Theatre: The actor made an early start in the theatre world. “I played saxophone when I was quite young,” notes Fagbenle, “and at the age of about 14, I got involved in Ritual Theatre Arts. It's an African theatre company with a great director, Rufus Orisayomi. He would do semi-professional shows, and I would play the saxophone for them.” Slowly, the director started giving his young musician small parts to play in the productions, such as Fleance in a Nigerian adaptation of Macbeth. As he got older, the parts grew, too. By the age of 17, Fagbenle went on tour to Germany playing the title role in Macbeth.

O-T Fagbenle in Porgy and Bess

Epiphany: It wasn’t a given that Fagbenle would go to drama school. He had applied to Birmingham University to study economics and politics. “And then one night I had an epiphany,” he says. “I was helping out on the lighting of a school production, and I realised I loved it. I had always loved being a part of the theatre, but I realised there that I loved all of it, and that it was more than j