Michael Obiora is a young and dynamic theatre and TV actor and arguably one of the youngest Nigeria-born British artistes at present. Lately, he has been splitting his time between acting and his newfound passion, writing. Lawrence Amaku reports.

Michael Obiora, born October 8, 1986 in North-West London, England, to Nigerian-Igbo parents, is an English actor and writer.

He started drama classes at seven. He was soon encouraged to join an agency by his drama teacher. He then joined another drama group at nine years of age, and within a year, landed a part in the hit childrens’ school drama, ‘Grange Hill.’ Michael played ‘Max Abassi’ in the programme for five years and went down as the youngest ever actor to have appeared on the show.

Michael went on to appear in such programmes as Doctors, The Bill and Holby City, but it was his role in the stage play, ‘Exclude Me’ that really set the ball rolling. He completed a successful 11-week run on stage at The Chelsea Theatre. Lead roles in the award winning play ‘Fallout’ at the Royal Court Theatre and ‘Badnuff’ at The Soho Theatre soon followed.

Later, Michael went on to appear in other popular television shows such as My Family, Judge John Deed and Sea Of Souls.

In 2005, aged 19, Michael started a seven-month run in the award-winning play, Elmina’s Kitchen written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, at the Garrick Theatre. Michael was short-listed as ‘Best New Comer’ for this performance.

Before the West End run of ‘Elmina’s Kitchen’ came to an end, Michael won the part of receptionist, Ben Trueman, in the BBC1 show, Hotel Babylon.  He acquired fame for playing this role. The show continues to be popular, achieving figures of over six million viewers per episode. It is one of the BBC’s most successful exports and is shown in over 100 countries including America, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Australia, Israel, Pay TV in the Middle East, India, Bulgaria, Thailand, Croatia, Bahrain, Poland and Hong Kong.

Michael has also appeared in ITV1’s Afterlife and gave a notable performance in BBC1’s popular Doctor Who.

He has also demonstrated his ingenuity outside theatre by venturing into creative writing,  crafting his first novel, Black Shoes. Like the theme of most African-American novels/literature, Black Shoes looks at a professional man’s quest to find his way through the maze of negative stereotypes and     his personal battle with his identity.

In the short excerpt below taken from a  2008 interview, when he was writing his first novel, he expressed his sentiments on his acting career and his emerging passion for writing:

“I want as varied and balanced a career as possible. I am writing a lot now and I find it much easier to write when I’m busy.

“Writing is such a discipline that you need to set yourself deadlines and it’s very difficult to impose deadlines on yourself. So, if I’m on set and I know I’ve got half an hour, 45 minutes before my next scene, I will just go and write. I’m now on draft two of my script and I’ve had some really good and helpful feedback.”

Michael was diagnosed with Coeliac disease in 2008 which has made him check his diet. Since then, he has been involved in charity works for Coelic UK, by appearing as a guest on several shows in the United Kingdom where he has talked about his movies and recent book.

Personal life
Michael is a sports and fitness enthusiast. He is a keen Arsenal fan, enjoys going to games at the Emirates. Apart from having a novel to his name, Michael has also written a screenplay, is setting up a production company, clothing line and has plans to open a restaurant in the near future.

He enjoys traveling, cooking and an eclectic mix of music.