Month: April 2013

JASMINE WITH PREEYA KALIDAS
A room full of global and political leaders, sporting stars, music legends, business tycoons, Television and film celebrities – it could only be the annual Asian awards!
In its third year, the awards opened out the winners for the first time to include the whole of Asia-not just South Asians as per the first two years. So this year the Grosvenor House hotels Great Room saw a whole realm of Asians from all over Japan, China, India, chorea and the UK attend.

ALL THE INFO YOU NEED ABOUT THE ASIAN AWARDS
‘’These awards were born out of a single vision – to create an event, which would recognize exceptional achievement from those within the global Asian community, on a scale which had never been seen or done before. The Asian awards are about people – about those who stand up for what they believe in and those who step forward to make a difference ‘’- Paul sago Asian awards founder.

JASMINE WITH ASIAN AWARDS FOUNDER PAUL SAGOO’S PARENTS AND MOTHER=IN-LAW
Paul is a man that started his career under the tutelage of Lord Alan Sugar. A straight speaker and a man most would love to call their boss. Always demanding the very best of his team and himself, he said he founded these awards after attending so many others and being left frustrated ‘’Unanimously the quality of these events wasn’t great, there would always be something; a spelling mistake in the brochure, the microphone wouldn’t work, the screen would disappear, they’d run out of time or the food wouldn’t be great. The second thing was the winners. I’d think ‘’truly why does that person deserve the award?’. We’re always looking to celebrate people who are genuinely outstanding in their field’’.

JASMINE WITH MOBO AWARDS FOUNDER KANYA KING AS THE ASIAN AWARDS.
Alongside Sotheby’s, other sponsors of the evening included elite face Cream brand Crème De La Mer, Perrier Jouet Champagne, PR Newswire, the East India Company, Asian Wealth Magazine and Cobra beer.
Sophie Panizzo , the director of UK Sothebys International Realty said ‘’In a period when much in the news is about struggling economies , it becomes ever more important for us to remember that the world is full of amazing people , their achievements and accomplishments a constant reminder of what can be achieved with dedication and determination’’.

JASMINE WITH SWAY AT THE ASIAN AWARDS.
Hosted by (half Asian) Lord Sebastian Coe, who said he was proud to be hosting the awards for the third year running, Sir Coe’s introduction was funny, engaging and sincere. (In my youth, when he was winning gold medals for this country in the Olympics and European championships, I don’t ever recall the British press mentioning that he was half Indian, with a father from Gurarat?).

EACH TABLE HELD A MINI TABLET TO BID IN THE SILENT AUCTION-VERY MODERN DAY!
On each table were two mini IPads for guests to bid for the items in the silent auction, which was a very chic and modern tech way of donating some money. A simple tap of a button and I felt good about giving, instead of the usual rigmarole of pens, booklets and filling in bank details! Often when I attending these functions I note that the auctions are very unsuccessful, but here you couldn’t stop the guests bidding!. It was quite exciting to observe the Asian wealthy tycoons all trying to outbid each other for Aston martin days, designer brands, music experiences, bespoke artwork, chef dinner parties, signed sporting paraphernalia from legendary sportsmen, holidays of a lifetime, even drumming lessons with Duran Duran’s Roger Taylor! At one point TV newsreader Tasmin Lucia Khan was onstage, auctioning off herself and other sexy ladies for an evenings dinner, and managed to set Dragons Den judge James Caan and another wealthy tycoon against each other to the audiences delight!

DECADENT MACAROONS ACCOMPANIED BY COFFEE AT THE END OF THE ASIAN AWARDS FEAST!
Food was courtesy of Madhus and was unquestionably the best food I’ve ever tasted or seen presented at an awards show of this caliber. Sea bass with mango salsa wrapped in a banana leaf for starters. A royal thali (silver tray) with chicken, lamb, pomegranate and mint raita with pilau rice main. Finished off with a pistachio and almond mousse cake and masala chai panna cotta. All mouth watering to the palette and the eyes. Even the post dinner coffee arrived not with the usual petit fours truffle chocolates, but decadent flavoured macaroons. Waiters even regularly asked if anyone desired any more. If our over full stomachs could have taken any more we certainly would have. Full marks!
(one man clearly had eaten too much and had ITIS- here he is asleep post dinner -anyone know him?)

”ITIS”

SIR BEN KINGSLEY COLLECTED HIS AWARD WITH A HEARTFELT SPEECH.
Adding a Royal presence to the night’s events, Princess Michael of Kent arrived in elegant fashion in an off white sequined ensemble. Legend Sir Ben Kingsley accepted his fellowship award with a touching speech.

SIR BEN COLLECTS HIS ASIAN AWARD!
Actress Preeya Kalidas looked very elegant in a black long sexy black sheath accented with fire engine red lips and nails. Rapper Sway commented on how glamorous and chic the awards were as it was his first time attending. MOBO Awards CEO Kanya King was rocking a demure black Chanel skirt suit.

JASMINE WITH KISS100RADIO DJ NEEVE.
KISS100FM’s Dj Neeve was my belle of the ball looking stunning in an Indian princess beehive adorned with an Indian sequined bindi headdress.

JASMINE WITH 102-year-old marathon runner Fauja Singh!.
I tried to badger 102-year-old marathon runner Fauja Singh about his secret to a long healthy like and which face cream he uses, but he didn’t seem to want to divulge that information.

PETER ANDRE HAD A GREAT TIME!
Peter Andre arrived in sunglasses for an evening where he was going to be indoors. Thankfully he took them off when curtseying when introduced to Princess Michael. My mate commented that they couldn’t believe he was now pretending to be Indian so he could enjoy a free meal LOL! Former athlete, now TV sports pundit Colin Jackson looked suave in his suit. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne spoke about the impact of Asians on the financial market globally. Eastenders actress and acting legend Nina Wadia won the bid in the auction for the Aston Martin experience for five thousand pounds and later, on collecting her award for outstanding achievement in television she began in the usual well mannered way but then slightly inebriated yelled ‘’oh fuck it-its about time!’. We cheered!
Radio 1’s hardest working broadcaster Nihal ran in to show his face before escaping to host his evening radio show.

BEVERLEY KNIGHT SANG AT THE ASIAN AWARDS.
Others in the house included singer Beverley Knight who sang mid awards, Gurinder Chadha, Amy’s father Mitch Winehouse, Emma Noble, Elen Rivas and nineties music act Sonique.
A very unique night where British Asians were proud of all the opportunities that this country has offered them, overseen and joined by many multi cultured high influencers and power players from every industry who were happy to unite to celebrate that! .

JASMINE WITH WEST LONDON MUSIC STAR-ANGEL.
MUSIC
A busy week. Music stayed strong on the scene with Angel having an album launch party at the Mayfair Hotel where so many other young peers joined him to show their support. In the house sipping lots of Red Bull special edition beverages were; Wretch32, Tinchy Stryder, Fazer, Stooshe, Leigh Anne from Little Mix, Jamelia, Nate James, Oritse from JLS, Daley, Cleo Sol, G Frsh and Preeya Kalidas.
On the same night Ty had a show at Jazz Café which according to all accounts was great too!

JASMINE WITH FILM MAKERS ROY AGYEMANG AND NEVILLE HENDRICKS.

FILM
The world’s getting smaller. We are no longer hostages to national media broadcasters who transmit every story from their own individual political angles. With social media connecting us in seconds to people across the globe, the truth is closer and more available than ever.
In my youth in the 80’s, I devoured media in the only ways available – print press, radio and TV. Therefore I was told the world’s news stories from one point of view. The British one. Like many, I still jump daily from many news platforms so I can see the same story from different points of view. Luckily I’ve also always worked in media establishments where I have access to a multitude of daily press. I like to think I see a balanced view of the world’s news.
As a teenager I recall visiting my parents birth homes in Kenya and India and my cousins laughing at my ‘’western brainwashed way of thinking’’ as I staunchly championed and supported my colonial British roots with pride.
A big eye opener was after 9/11 when; their thinking on why it had happened, who had caused it and why it wasn’t such a bad thing, shocked me to the core. Viewing their news channels and papers in Africa and Asia made me see that the world sees the west aka the USA ‘’and its puppy dog’’ – the UK, as the worlds playground bullies that pillage other countries for their natural resources, lie to justify their presence in other countries and think its ok to police the world.
Today it’s a very different world. Social media means that we hear the truth and diverse points of view without propaganda clouding our judgment as much as it once did.
Politically exposing documentary film makers used to be few and far between. Michael Moore and his peers make revealingly exciting docs that get mass media promotion but there are millions of lesser known doc makers that are about to break through the big screen horizon, and this week I was lucky enough to see 2 films by 2 very brave, pro-socially minded film directors.

The first was a movie about Zimbabwe leader Robert Mugabe. The second was called ‘’ONE MILE AWAY’’ (which I will tell you about next week).

Mugabe – The man that I had been informed by the western media was an evil villain. A dictator who was evil and needed to be brought down. The film was titled ‘’Mugabe – villain or hero?’’. Of course many of us would think clearly-villain! There are always three sides to every story though, one side, the other side and the truth.
Riverside studios in West London held a special screening that saw a diverse audience attend to make up their minds about the title. The doc was made cheaply. But its not its filmic qualities we are interested in-it’s the story.
The story of Zimbabwe, its people and history was told in an easily digestible manner from way back when it was called Rhodesia. The country was one of the last in Africa to fight for and win its independence from British colonization. The film showed how Mugabe was once a revered hero that moved in social circles with every great world leaders including American presidents, British prime ministers ,The Pope and even our Queen!. He was knighted by our Queen and visited London as her guest many times.
So where did it all go wrong? It seems that was when he decided to make the call for ‘’Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans’’. When he had to free his country and people of British rule he was suddenly cast as the evil dictator. In the now infamous Lancaster House agreement, Robert Mugabe and his supporters were pressured into signing and agreeing to wait ten years before instituting land reform. At the time, an agreement under Margaret Thatcher’s government had promised Zimbabwe that 10 years after signing the Lancaster house agreement, Zimbabwe land would be handed back to the people of Zimbabwe from the white farm and land owners. However once Thatcher was ousted and a Labour government took over the UK, they reneged on the agreement whilst Mugabe had played everything by the book. The then letter from Tony Blair’s cabinet member Clare Short, told Muagbe in no uncertain terms, that “I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new Government from diverse backgrounds, without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and as you know we were colonised not colonisers’’ and would not stick to the UK’s agreement.
Mugabe argues that land remains an issue because of the constraints placed on him by the 1979 Lancaster House agreement to end white rule in the former Rhodesia, and Britain’s betrayal of the promises it made to ensure a settlement. Since independence, only 10% of arable land has moved legally from white to black hands. Mugabe’s detractors say that that the black people that Robert Mugabe gave those farms to are political supporters of Mugabe who were given those farms as payoffs.
History states that more than thirty years after ending white-minority rule in Zimbabwe, Mugabe accuses the United Kingdom and the United States of promoting white imperialism and regularly accuses opposition figures to his government of being allies of white imperialism. When the United Kingdom once condemned Mugabe’s authoritarian policies and alleged racist attitudes as being comparable to those of German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Mugabe responded with an extremely controversial remark, mocking the UK’s claims by saying about himself and his policies that “I am still the Hitler of the time. This Hitler has only one objective, justice for his own people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people, and their right to their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be a Hitler tenfold.
Mugabe then left with no choice but to take matters into his own hands had to take the land back for his people by force. In any change to society, wars are fought and there are many casualties. Many would suggest that Tony Blair is a much bigger war criminal than Mugabe for sending our troops into Iran for the weapons of mass destruction drama. I don’t want to spoil the film for you but it an absolute must see to get a more balanced view of the relationship between Africa and the west. At one point in the film we even see leaders from China and Russia siding with Africa on the unfair sanctions and interference of the UK and USA in Zimbabwe. If the world is slowly getting wise to this concept of western bullying is it a wonder that we no longer feel safe in the UK anymore? What will happen in a generation when Africa regains its once former glory pre-slavery and colonization? Are we ‘’the West’’ doomed?

And here’s the most intriguing part of the story-this documentary was made by Roy Agyemang who used to be a KissFM DJ and TV producer for “Katie and Peter – the next chapter”
After the film there was a Q&A session where Roy revealed, “I wanted to show that Africans aren’t just killed by Tarzan. I went out there a proud British Ghanaian. I reconnected stronger with my African heritage – there’s no doubt about that. The UK only show press images of African leaders as negative dictators so I was spurred on to find out what was behind the headlines, we went out to Zimbabwe for 3 months and ended up there for 3 years! We were constantly fobbed off about getting interview time with Mugabe and at times did fear for our lives’’.
Now readers, I thought I knew the stress of making docs for usually a few weeks, with famous talent, albeit mine were all MTV music acts. Getting through layers of record labels, agents and managers is excruciatingly crazy at times, so I can’t imagine trying to work on a film for 3 years and risking my life in another country where government sensitivities are concerned.
Roy continued his thoughts on Mugabe ‘‘We in the UK awarded him a knighthood even though he was committing atrocities? Really?. It’s only when you go there that you can see the spiritual connection between the land and its people.
The funder of the film Neville Hendricks, who also used to work in the Katie/Peter team, was very passionate about the film, and even though he had advised director Roy to return to the UK when things got hairy he was pleased with the final outcome of the doc ” my take is that none of u would sit on a jury and hear the case just for the prosecution…the Lancaster house agreement was a deal which Britain reneged whilst Mugabe kept his word. What did we expect him to do? This is about right and wrong not black and white. I’d love to see an election in Africa where the west takes its nose out of the trough”
Many audience members spoke up in support of the films version of events and stance, and one lady born in Zimbabwe now a British resident summed it up for many of the Africans present when she stated that the film encompassed a true representation of her feeling of Mugabe being a hero.
A timely reminder of a famous Malcolm X quote ‘’Don’t be in such a hurry to condemn a person because he doesn’t do what you do, or think as you think. There was once a time when you didn’t know what you know today’’.

CARMIT BACHAR-PULSE TOUR HOST, FORMER PCD AND ”MOMMY!”
Girl bands. They come. They go. They usually don’t stand the test of time. Alas, once many achieve group fame and success they can’t go the solo road alone.
But it’s a new day. Women keep their fingers in many pies. Their cups are not half empty or half full, as generally, they have a numerous cups. Multi tasking is the name of the female game.
Not long ago, Pussycat Dolls went from a Hollywood burlesque troupe to dominating the pop charts. For a short while. But then music bigwig Jimmy Iovine, decided to scoop the lead member up and catapult her to solo stardom and we assumed the rest would scatter by the wayside never to be heard from again.
But no- PCD’S Ashley Roberts joined the reality TV show path with her appearance in ‘’I’m a celeb get me out of here and Carmit-the fiery red head with attitude and a saucy smirk, kept on keeping on with juggling all her cups.
Thus far she is a relatively new mother, with a 2- year old toddler and hosting a dance tour all over the globe. This week that dance tour hits London.

Don’t get it twisted though this isn’t just any dance convention. This is the elite of dance conventions.
Imagine if you will in the music world, record label heads like Russell Simmons, Clive Davis, Jimmy Iovine, Tommy Motola and Kevin Liles travelling the world sharing their knowledge with the musicians of the next decade. Or celebrity chefs Delia Smith, Marco Pierre White, Madhur Jaffrey, Gordon Ramsey and Jamie Oliver travelling altogether on a cooking roadshow. Well this is the one the younger generation wants right now-the Pulse Tour!

Dance has never been bigger. As a child, like many other kids, I rocked up to my part time ballet, tap and jazz classes, but back then it was considered elite and niche. Now with a million global TV show competitions, hip hop dancers teaching class at gym chains and more-dance is cool! Refreshingly as many males as females want to dance. Look at Flawless and Diversity!
This weekend the biggest buzz for London’s youth and young adults is for the Pulse Tour at Olympia in West London. Tickets are selling like hot cakes for the classes, which are led by the crème de la crème of the dance world. Every dancer has heard of these very strong dance personalities.
Cris Judd came to light after dating the infamous J Lo, but is a very established choreographer in his own right. Next we have reality TV star and choreographer to all the stars- Ms LaurieAnn Gibson. X Factor straight talking dance guru Brian Friedman and last but not least an incredible dancer- former fiery redhead pussycat doll Carmit Bachar! I caught up with Carmit a few days before the tour kicks off to discuss both of our first loves-the world of dance!

After congratulating Carmit on motherhood and her incredible journey back to showbiz, I confided in her that I was extremely jealous that as a young dancer years back I didn’t have anything as amazing as the PULSE TOUR in London.
She laughed ‘’All of us on the tour say we wish this was around when WE were younger, this has been going nine years in the states but this is our first year in London. Our faculty has around 12 of us and we have our own strong niche in the industry, it’s the premier dance convention that exists right now. If you’re aspiring to be a professional dancer then this is the tour to come and take part in’’.
Each teacher is not just famous, but has their own very unique style of teaching too. Carmit summed it up thus ‘’ with Brian-you never know what you’re gonna get, he’s very detail orientated, fast, always technical but fun! Criss Judd is very stylised, you almost have to wear a fedora whilst doing his moves, you can’t teach it but practice until it sits in your body. Laurie Ann- you never know with her either as she comes from an Alvin Aliey very technique oriented base but she also has her base in the hip hop world , as well as that she works with Lady Gaga and is very jazzy –she’s about the feeling. Me? I’m more on the sassy side like my former PCD style, a mix of street and sexy stuff, I call it sexy street sprinkled with technique-I like lines and flow!’’.

This powerhouse of dance influencers and names came together out of mutual respect ‘’ We’re like the dance power movement globally, we’re friends, family, we’ve grown up together, and have mutual respect, We still take each others classes and we feel honoured to pass down our experience to the next generation of dancers now and you never know what could come of attending this tour. For example, Brian often teaches and if he spots new talent that he likes he hires them for X Factor in the USA!’’.

Back in the USA Carmit has been multi tasking wildly; hosting Pulse Tour conventions, her latest music project- a female duo that she’s a part of called Lady Station and being a ‘‘mommy’ ‘Being a Mother to a 2-year-old baby daughter has been totally worth it. I had a baby! I’m in heaven! It took me out of the game for a minute but was so unbelievable. It’s difficult to juggle, and yes, it would probably be easier for me to have been a housewife, but I’m fortunate to have an incredible partner, we’ve been together 14 years. He’s also in the industry and we share the responsibility, she’s with daddy right now, I’ll be home in a week, this is the longest we’ve been apart.

Looking at Carmit its clear her body has muscle memory and that post baby her body must’ve irritatingly snapped straight back into dancing goddess mode. She point blank denies that ‘’I only recently came back into my body after having my baby, aside from my physical form I still have out of wack hormones, I’ve always been an active and physical person but I had a 24 hour labour and emergency C section. Now I’m still healing and nursing and am very stringent with the choices I make with my food’’.
So she’s not a typical post baby Hollywood nip and tuck mum then? ‘’I did yoga for ages but my weight wasn’t dropping, it was so frustrating, and it was only after a year the weight started going. I did an active regime, with advice from Brian (Freidman), he got me onto Herbalife shakes and a healthy dinner routine. Now I’m back in a healthy zone and conscious about the stuff I put in my body. I look at my blood type to see which foods agree with me. Now I’m older and as a woman I feel the importance of the balance between mind and body. Power yoga is prominent in my life now’’.

I recall my numerous interviews with PCD in the nineties when they first came out recalling that Carmit was the very reason that powerful Jimmy Iovine at Interscope Records even spotted and signed the band. When the group was still doing their burlesque thing in nightclubs, Carmit knew No Doubt band lead Gwen Stefani, who had come to see the PCD girls perform. Gwen bought Jimmy along and the rest was history. Carmit recalls ‘’The way things fall into place there’s never rivalry, I was happy to link the group to Interscope, I met Jimmy through Gwen, Jimmy said what do you do?, I said ‘I’m a Pussycat Doll, he said ‘’what the f*** is that? Next thing, he came to see us with Gwen’’. So without Carmit, music and motoring power couple Nicole and Lewis, may never have been!

Carmit left the group in 2008. Reading between the lines its clear there were fallouts amongst band members. But I didn’t need to scrabble much for information, Carmit was pretty honest about the way history played out ’’We were all fortunate, I choose to remember the amazing times of performing onstage.Its unfortunate that girl groups have this stigma of bitchy rivalry. Unfortunately we fell victim to the same stereotype, but we will always share these amazing experiences. Now everyone’’s spread their wings.I’m happy that Ashley is doing so well here in the UK. In ‘’I’m a celebrity-get me out of here’’ she really surprised me, in the days of the band we used to scream if there was a spider in the vicinity-I cant believe she managed to do so much, I’m so proud of her!’’.

Dancing is a dream job for so many young people- but what are the realities of the job long term? ‘’Its fantastic that dance has been given so much exposure recently; it’s a new era. However when that happens you get a saturated market and now a lot dancers want to do it to be on TV, not to be able to dance. But look at the world now. With dance anything is possible! Dancers get to set trends these days, the market’s changed. If you dance, do it cos u love it. If the commercial world isn’t right for you, just participate in dance classes. Come and join us this weekend. We’re all super excited as this is our first UK tour and we cant wait to dance with you all!’’.

JASMINE WITH PHOTOGRAPHER SIMON FREDERICK AND HIS PORTRAIT OF GORDON MAC.
In totally unconnected circumstances this week a variety of friends from different social groups have asked me “why do black writers/ artists/ painters/ creative businesses have so much difficulty in getting mainstream recognition. I think its cos we don’t think big. Really big. Really commercial. Use all our connects and hustles. There are people that focus so much on their art but not getting it out there. Remember that old saying ‘”If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?”? Similarly you could make the best album in the world, write the best book, be the best at what you do, but if no one knows about it who will be witness to your talent? If you are happy to create for your personal contentment then fair play but if not-GET IT OUT THERE!

JASMINE WITH SIMON AND HIS PORTRAIT OF DJ TREVOR NELSON.
I attended a photography exhibition for an old friend-photographer Simon Fredericks whose work “My friends at work” was also my mates at work too as we share similar social circles.

Simon had photographed people like actor David Harewood, actress Sadie Frost, broadcaster Trevor Nelson, former KISS Radio head Gordon Mac, freelance PR Jodie Dalmeda and Puma head lady Lisa Buchan and more, all shot in their working environments. He then added a variety of effects to the photos giving them a canvas painted feel and look. The final effect is stunning and powerful.
The Gallery Different in Percy St held a launch attended by most of the artist’s subjects and was covered by the Daily Mail newspaper and more.
Whilst being given a private guide around the art by Simon, I commented that one portrait was extremely strong. It was of Saville Row tailor Mark Powell. He looked tough,confident and ballsy. As fate would have it right at that moment Mark entered the gallery looking exactly like his character out of a Guy Ritchie east end drama. Cool as f*#* and his personality was just as cool and cocky as I love a geezers to be!

JASMINE WITH SIMON AND HIS PORTRAIT OF SAVILLE ROW DESIGNER MARK POWELL…AND…MARK POWELL!
In an era where the extremely wealthy elite class have had enough of cribs, rides and bling, I can truly see portraits being the next on their acquisitions list starting with a “Frederick”. Warhol? Who’s that LOL?

JASMINE WITH ACTOR LONYO.
Next, I woke up one morning to find my mate that lives up the road from me, who used to be an MC (called Come Ci Come Ca) on the mic at parties when I was younger, made a classic UK urban hit song called ‘’Summer of love’’ years ago, had become an American small screen star overnight! I keep seeing actor Lonyo Engele’s face all over posters , my American friends facebook timelines and trailers for current American smash TV series The Bible which aired on the History Channel.The miniseries was watched by 13.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen.
You may recall me telling you about Lonyo last year making his acting debut in a film titled David is Dying ,which I caught at the BUFF FILM FESTIVAL. (British Urban Film Festival). He was a real stand out talent at that. David is Dying went on to win a Screen Nation Best Actor award ‘’the day before my birthday’’ beams Lonyo smiling in pleasant recollection ’’it was a great moment’’. The film also went on to win an American Black Film Festival Award and is the first British film to film that distinction!
Lonyo then broke down how he got his current big break ‘’then I went for an audition for The Bible. I actually get flown out to Morocco for it. I auditioned for 1 of the kings parts. At the same time I was also filming a BBC drama ‘’New Tricks’’. I got all this via my agent at Identity Drama School –his name is Femi. It’s the Number 1 black agency in the country and gave me a brilliant progression route to where I am now’’.
Lonyo alas didn’t get the role of the king but revealed ‘’I got a call saying I had got the guardian angel role. So I was flown to Morocco again for 6 weeks filming the part ,which Included 2 weeks of sword and stunt training. Clearly I had to know how to hold a sword for the role. The other angel was a world champion swords man so I had to really step up and focus’’.
The Bible series is made by British husband and wife team Mark Burnet and Roma Downey (responsible for numerous other TV smashes like Apprentice , Survivor, The Voice)…
When I asked which famous Hollywood style names were also in the show I was told ‘’the cast is an “international ensemble” chosen to avoid “distracting the audience with recognizable celebrities”; “many” of the actors came from a background in London’s theatre district.
Lonyo told me ‘’”My role is to deliver the message to Abraham that he’s being tested and to let him know that we’re going to destroy the city of Sodom, I was quite familiar with the Bible before. I go to church. But I had to re-familiarise myself with it. When it came to acting I Haven’t had much training and I’m still in training now. I had to go with my hunches. One hunch didn’t go well when I tried to act a bit cockney”. The Director was like “ummm less cockney please” lol “My script was juicy with lots of lines and action and we finished filming last year, it was on air in the USA throughout March but now there are plans to take it worldwide.’’
Talking about what’s next Lonyo humbly mentions ‘’at the moment I’m still finishing my next course of acting school and am in a play. I’m also having voice training for acting for the American market and my American accent is poor LOL. But having these past projects behind me will all hopefully help my future career on screen’’.

Smiling about his now regular red carpets and interviews by press he shrugs ‘’its all ok as I’m older now and had experienced that stuff when I was a musician. I prefer to work. But winning awards for acting is great. I don’t find the barriers are up there in the acting world the way it is in music due to my age. In acting you can start at 40-in pop music that’s well past it’’.

Lonyo revealed he still has fingers in many business pies; he is making documentaries and so on. He finishes with this classic quote ‘”Evolve or become extinct!”
His director Mark Burnett said ‘’regards THE BIBLE airing outside of America, Now we’re about to start around the world. This will be in every country of the world. More people will see this series than everything we ever made; together, combined. Billions of people will see this series. Billions’’.
Get ready people- west Londoner Lonyo is biting at the heels of Idris and will no doubt be a big name on your screens very soon.