Adeola Adeyemo
It’s always great to see Nigerians taking on major roles in Hollywood movies and making good names for themselves in the competitive industry. 24-year-old Dayo Okeniyi is one of them.
Raised in Lagos Nigeria, Dayo began acting in the Theatre at his Secondary School. In 2003, he moved from Nigeria with his family to the United States. Dayo received a Bachelor’s degree from Anderson University in Visual Communications Design and Advertising in 2009. After College, he decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue Acting, his true passion. In 2012 Dayo landed the highly coveted role of “Thresh” the gladiatorial tribute from District 11 chosen alongside his female counterpart “Rue” to fight to the death in the successful motion picture franchise “The Hunger Games.” Since then he has been cast in upcoming films “The Spectacular Now” and the Ben Affleck / Justin Timberlake Starer “Runner Runner”. Both films are due out in 2013.
In this exclusive interview with BellaNaija’s Adeola Adeyemo, Dayo takes us through his journey from Lagos to Hollywood and tells us that despite his international success, he is very much Nigerian at heart.
The Early Years
As someone who has featured on big international screens, you are somewhat an unfamiliar face on our local screens. Tell us a bit about yourself.
Although I go by Dayo Okeniyi, my full name is Oladayo Okeniyi. I’m the 24 year-old son of a Nigerian Father and a Kenyan mother. Even though my family is from Ogbomoso in Oyo state, I was born in Jos. When I was only a year old my family relocated to Lagos where I spent most of my formative years.
Read the rest of this interview on BellaNaija
Photo Credit: Sue Schneider for Assignment X
