Out of the Black Box: Conversations with Global Majority Actors

This groundbreaking collection of curated interviews provides an opportunity to hear from Black and Global Majority actors and artists working internationally as they discuss their careers to date, from what they wish they had known to the pitfalls they are still learning to navigate.

Structured around the classic actor-training concept of the ’given circumstances’ - a tool that an actor might use to determine the wider context of their journey from page to stage to screen - the book offers up rare, multi-perspective insights into approaches to actor training, professional experiences, career choices, narrative voices and creative process. How this is experienced - in an industry that is still defining how Black and Global majority presence translates into visibility and power - is a deep abiding theme that resonates throughout.

Interviewees include Noma Dumezweni, James Earl Jones, Indhu Rubasingham MBE, David Oyelowo OBE, Fisayo Akinade, Sheila Atim MBE, Francesca Amewudah-Rivers and many more.

Pamela Jikiemi is Head of Film, TV and Radio at RADA, UK. Sheclassically trained at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) with postgraduate study completed at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCCSD). She is currently a PhD candidate exploring representation in actor training. She has worked creatively and extensively as an actor (television, radio, film, theatre and voiceover, nationally and internationally) in senior management and as Department Head/Unit Leader/Visiting Lecturer in broadcast, VFX/design post production, digital media, actor training, theatre and screen. She has published a chapter titled, ＂Training or Racialisation? The Case of the Black British Trainee Actor＂ in Progress in Education 56.