Aged 9, Daniel Kaluuya wrote his first play, inspired by ‘Kenan & Kel’
Daniel Kaluuya has become an unstoppable force in the film industry, especially since his breakthrough performance in Jordan Peele’s highly influential horror debut, Get Out. One of the most talented actors of his generation, Kaluuya has continued to garner attention from film fans all over the world.
While many have claimed that Kaluuya would be fantastic as the next James Bond, he has already tackled multiple iconic roles. Ranging from his powerful portrayal of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah to his recent outing in Peele’s latest horror project Nope, Kaluuya has demonstrated a lot of versatility.
Kaluuya’s performance as Hampton in last year’s biopic helped him win the coveted Best Supporting Actor Prize at the Oscars and made him one of the youngest recipients of the prestigious accolade. Since he just turned 33 this year, it is safe to say that some of Kaluuya’s most interesting acting work is yet to come.
Born in London, Kaluuya was drawn to the performing arts from a young age which is he got to explore the domains of acting and improvisational theatre. During his school years, he showed promise as a young actor and was a part of the original cast of the popular TV show Skins, where he served as a writer as well.
“I wrote my first play when I was nine,” Kaluuya recalled in an interview. “It was performed at Hampstead Theatre. I won this competition. It was really weird. The teacher thought I was an idiot. I was messing about a lot, and she’d go, ‘Look at Shafi’ — Shafi was Bengali, she couldn’t speak English— ‘Even Shafi is working. What’s wrong with you?’ And I was like, ‘Alright, listen. I can do this.’ I just wrote something, it won, and it got performed.”
Kaluuya did start out as a writer, but the play he wrote at the age of nine was literature born out of protest because his teacher thought he was a poor student. Based on the popular Nickelodeon show Kenan & Kel, the play revolved around two McDonald’s employees and the play won a prize. It paved the way for his entry into the world of acting.
The actor added: “Then I got into acting through improv. Improv is like writing. It’s actually a different discipline to acting. It helps acting greatly, but it’s completely different. It’s the same side of your brain when you write as when you improv. So I did that, and I started writing plays and directing them at Hampstead Theatre, youth theatre. Then I got a job acting, then I got Skins. I joined Skins as a writer and actor when I was 17.”
