Adebayo Bolaji (born 15 May 1983) is a London-based painter, actor, writer and director.

Early life

Adebayo Tibabalase Bolaji was born in

Perivale Perivale () is a mainly residential suburban town of Greater London, west of Charing Cross. It is the smallest of the seven towns which make up the London Borough of Ealing. Perivale is predominately residential, with a library, community ce ...

in the London Borough of Ealing, of Nigerian parents, and is an English actor, writer and director. Bolaji began his acting career when he was 14 with the

National Youth Music Theatre The National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) is an arts organisation in the United Kingdom providing pre-professional education and musical theatre stage experience for young people. Based in London, it is constituted as a private limited company (or ...

, making his West End debut in their 1997 production of ''

Bugsy Malone ''Bugsy Malone'' is a 1976 gangster musical comedy film written and directed by Alan Parker (in his feature film directorial debut). A co-production of United States and United Kingdom, it features an ensemble cast, comprising only child actor ...

'' at the Queen's Theatre. With NYMT he performed at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of Arts festival, arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the ...

three times, in Tokyo, at the

Palace Theatre, London The Palace Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster in London. Its red-brick facade dominates the west side of Cambridge Circus, London, Cambridge Circus behind a small plaza near the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue and Chari ...

and the

Lyceum Theatre, London The Lyceum Theatre ( ) is a West End theatre located in the City of Westminster, on Wellington Street, just off the Strand in central London. It has a seating capacity of 2,100. The origins of the theatre date to 1765. Managed by Samuel Arno ...

Education

Bolaji graduated from

London Guildhall University London Guildhall University was a university in the United Kingdom from 1992 to 2002, established when the City of London Polytechnic was awarded university status. On 1 August 2002, it merged with the University of North London to form Londo ...

with a degree in Law but went on to train at the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

Actor, director and writer

Bolaji originated the role of the Subway Ghost in ''

Ghost the Musical ''Ghost'' is a musical with book and lyrics by Bruce Joel Rubin and music and lyrics by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard. Based on the hit 1990 romantic fantasy thriller film of the same name, it centres on lovers Sam and Molly, who are attack ...

'', directed by

Matthew Warchus Matthew Warchus (born 24 October 1966) is an English theatre director, playwright, and filmmaker. He has been the Artistic Director of London's The Old Vic since September 2015. Early life and education Warchus grew up in Selby, North Yorkshir ...

and produced by Colin Ingram. Bolaji appeared in

Skyfall ''Skyfall'' is a 2012 spy thriller film and the twenty-third in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. The film is the third to star Daniel Craig as fictional MI6 agent James Bond and features Javier Bardem as Raoul Silva, ...

directed by the

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

-winning

Sam Mendes Sir Samuel Alexander Mendes (born 1 August 1965) is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter. In 2000, Mendes was appointed a CBE for his services to drama, and he was Knight Bachelor, knighted in the 2020 New Year Honours ...

, as one of the henchmen of Silva, played by

Javier Bardem Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem (born 1 March 1969) is a Spanish actor. In a career spanning over three decades, he has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choice Movie Award, tw ...

and was also cast in

Tom Hooper Thomas George Hooper (born 5 October 1972)''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005''. 5d: 2485. is a British-Australian filmmaker. Known for his work in film and television he has received numerous accolades includ ...

's movie version of ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

Les Misérables (2012 film) is a 2012 epic period musical film directed by Tom Hooper from a screenplay by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Herbert Kretzmer, and is based on the stage musical of the same name by Schönberg, Boublil, a ...

but had to withdraw due to film schedule conflicts. In May 2013, Bolaji was cast in the

Menier Chocolate Factory The Menier Chocolate Factory is a 180-seat Off-West End theatre, which comprises a bar and theatre offices. It is located at the rear of a former 1870s Menier Chocolate, Menier Chocolate Company factory at 53 Southwark Street, a major street i ...

's production of ''

The Color Purple ''The Color Purple'' is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker that won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. and the

Young Vic The Young Vic Theatre is a performing arts venue located on The Cut, near the South Bank, in the London Borough of Lambeth. The Young Vic was established by Frank Dunlop in 1970. Nadia Fall has been artistic director since 2025, succeeding ...

's production of

Susan Stroman Susan P. Stroman (born October 17, 1954) is an American theatre director, choreographer, and performer. Her notable theater productions include ''Oklahoma!'', ''The Music Man'', ''Crazy for You (musical), Crazy for You'', ''Contact (musical), Co ...

's London premiere of

The Scottsboro Boys The Scottsboro Boys were nine African Americans, African American male teenagers accused of rape, raping two White American, white women in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with Racism in the United States, racism ...

. Bolaji's first play ''Ugly Butterflies'' was performed at the

while still in training. Bolaji's second play, ''In Bed'', was written and produced at

The Questors Theatre The Questors Theatre is a theatre venue located in the London Borough of Ealing, West London. It is home of The Questors, a large theatre company which hosts a season of around twenty productions a year, not including visiting companies, and is a ...

with Ex Nihilo, the theatre company he set up in 2009. In December 2018, Bolaji's theatre company Ex Nihilo will be showing Jacky Ivimy's play ''Dialektikon'' at the Park Theatre which Bolaji will direct. The play is based on the counter-culture event in 1967, the

Dialectics of Liberation Congress The congress on the Dialectics of Liberation was an international congress organised in London between 15 and 30 July 1967. It was organised by R. D. Laing, David Cooper, the American educationalist Joe Berke, and Leon Redler. The scope of th ...

Career as Painter

Bolaji is a self-taught artist and came to work with the medium of paint later on in his acting career. In an interview with Vanessa Murrell via DATEAGLE ART, he stated "acting and law offer great tools, such as asking the right questions". In 2016 Bolaji was chosen as Tangle's commissioned artist for

Yinka Shonibare Yinka Shonibare (born 9 August 1962), is a British artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. A hallmark of his art is the bright ...

's MBE Guest Projects Space, in Hackney London, for emerging artists, subsequently Bolaji was selected to show his works at long standing contemporary gallery Galerie Proarta, in

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Personal life

Bolaji currently lives in London and is also a percussionist.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bolaji, Adebayo 1983 births Living people Alumni of London Guildhall University Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Actors from the London Borough of Ealing Artists from the London Borough of Ealing Black British artists Black British male actors English male musical theatre actors English people of Nigerian descent English people of Yoruba descent Male actors from London People from Perivale Yoruba male actors