Samson Kayo

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Samson Kayo (born 1991/1992)[1] is a British actor, producer and writer. He was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance in 2018 for the BBC sketch show Famalam (2017–2020). He created, wrote and starred in the Sky One sitcom Bloods (2021–2022), and received a nomination for the same award in 2022. He won the Royal Television Society Programme Awards for Best Male Comedy Performance in the latter role in 2022, having also been nominated in 2019 and 2023. He also created and stars in Sliced (2019–2020), and his other credits include Youngers (2013), Timewasters (2017), and Our Flag Means Death (2022–2023).

Biography[edit]

Kayo is of Nigerian descent.[2] He said that growing up in Peckham, he only wanted to be a footballer, but developed an interest in comedy through Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and British comedian Jocelyn Jee Esien, who inspired him as a black person to enter comedy. He was a childhood friend of John Boyega, with whom he attended church.[3] When he went out to pick up an iron for his mother, he found an open audition for the Channel 4 comedy Youngers, and was cast.[4] In 2017, he played a fictionalised version of will.i.am in the BBC Three improvised comedy series Murder in Successville.[5]

Kayo was nominated for Best Male Comedy Performance at the 2018 British Academy Television Awards for his part in the BBC sketch show Famalam.[6] From 2017 to 2019, he was part of the main cast of the ITV2 sitcom Timewasters, in which a Black British jazz quartet are transported through time to the London of the 1920s and 1950s in each series.[7] He is the creator, writer and lead of the takeaway-based sitcom Sliced on Dave since 2019.[4] He also created and plays the lead Maleek on paramedic-focused sitcom Bloods, which debuted on Sky One in 2021 while being based on an eight-minute short film on Sky Arts.[1] He was nominated for Best Male Comedy Performance at the 2022 British Academy Television Awards for this role,[8] and won the same award at the year's Royal Television Society Programme Awards.[9]

In 2020, Kayo featured in Nick Frost and Simon Pegg's horror comedy series Truth Seekers. A year later, he starred in David Jenkins and Taika Waititi's pirate-based romantic comedy series Our Flag Means Death, which was produced in the United States. He told The Irish Times that although many British actors of colour found more opportunity in the United States, he was committed to making more British series.[4]

Kayo's first voice performance was as Baby Bear in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022), with Antonio Banderas in the title role.[10]

Filmography[edit]

Film[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
2018 Grandpa's Great Escape Gravedigger Vince
2020 Dolittle Pirate [11]
2022 The Bubble Bola [12]
2022 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Baby Bear (voice) [10]

Television[edit]

Year Title Role Notes
2013 Youngers Boss Fury [4]
2015 The Javone Prince Show Various
2016 We the Jury Don
2017 Murder in Successville Will.i.am [5]
Comedy Playhouse Dillon
Hailmakers Sol
Timewasters Horace / Aston [7]
2018 Sky Comedy Shorts Maleek [1]
2017–2020 Famalam Various [6]
2019 Urban Myths Basil
2019–2020 Sliced Joshua [4]
2020 Truth Seekers Elton John [4]
2020 Death to 2020 Pyrex Flask Netflix special
2021–2022 Bloods Maleek [1]
2021 Death to 2021 Pyrex Flask Netflix special
2022-2023 Our Flag Means Death Oluwande [4]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Samson Kayo: "I've been given an opportunity to tell Black British stories"". NME. 16 March 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  2. ^ Power, Tom (22 October 2022). "Samson Kayo Gets Real About 'Truth Seekers' and Black People's Place in Horror". The New York Observer. Retrieved 17 November 2022. As a Nigerian, there are myths about witchcraft and voodoo, so I do believe that those sorts of things are real.
  3. ^ Ganatra, Shilpa (12 March 2022). "Samson Kayo: 'I'm a London boy. I love my home'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Humphreys, Georgia (31 May 2021). "TV Quickfire: Samson Kayo on the return of his hit sitcom Sliced". Irish News. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  5. ^ a b "A Murder in Ye Olde Successville". BBC Three. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  6. ^ a b Lawson, Mark (11 May 2018). "Bafta TV awards 2018: who will win – and who deserves to". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  7. ^ a b Kanter, Jake (24 May 2021). "'Timewasters': UK Comedy Series Travels To IMDb TV In The U.S." Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  8. ^ "Bafta TV Awards 2022: The nominations". BBC News. 30 March 2022. Retrieved 9 April 2022.
  9. ^ Yossman, K. J. (29 March 2022). "RTS Program Awards 2022 Start With a Slap Before Honoring Winners Including Jack Thorne, Russell T. Davies". Variety. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  10. ^ a b "Actor Samson Kayo is the voice of 'Baby Bear' in family film 'Puss in Boots: The Last Wish' alongside Antonio Banderas". BBC Radio Surrey. 11 February 2023. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  11. ^ "Dolittle - Full Cast & Crew". TV Guide. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  12. ^ Kit, Borys (16 March 2021). "Rob Delaney, Samson Kayo, Vir Das Board 'The Bubble' as Judd Apatow Meta-Comedy Begins Shooting". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 28 May 2024.

External links[edit]

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