Special Agent
Published: Summer ‘17
Femi Oguns is not one to simply join a chorus of complaints. Having witnessed first-hand the lack of diversity in the acting industry, he was motivated to found the Identity School of Acting (IDSA) in 2003 and the Identity Agency Group (IAG) in 2006. “I wanted actors to know there was a safe space for them to train, where they would be judged on their merit and nothing else,” he says.
Femi Oguns is not one to simply join a chorus of complaints. Having witnessed first-hand the lack of diversity in the acting industry, he was motivated to found the Identity School of Acting (IDSA) in 2003 and the Identity Agency Group (IAG) in 2006. “I wanted actors to know there was a safe space for them to train, where they would be judged on their merit and nothing else,” he says.
“My main aim as an agent is to reflect what’s already out there in the world, which encompasses a beautiful range of different ethnicities,” says Oguns. “From a school that only started off with 10 students, I’m proud to say that we now have 900 students training at the school every week. It’s a wonderful environment that is a microcosm of our vibrant world, all working, nurturing and developing their skills under one roof, and celebrating their identities though a wide range of styles and techniques from a host of brilliant theatre practitioners. We have two sites now, one in King’s Cross and one in Brixton.”
As “a true believer that a character is an extension of yourself”, Oguns feels that traditional schools work in a way that strips actors of their identity – in other words, they don’t know how to work with the true essence of a person. “The industry’s changed,” he explains.
“I believe there was a formula in place back in the day, where in order for an actor to be successful, they’d have to look a certain way and act a certain way. A lot of drama schools design their courses that way. But what we do as a drama school is celebrate the essence of our actors. We celebrate their culture and their life experiences.”
Oguns set up the school to disrupt the system. “I wanted to challenge people’s perceptions because so often we’re living in isolated communities, where people believe that certain communities act or live in certain ways. And that’s where lazy casting comes into play, whereby there will be very restrictive roles for people from certain ethnic backgrounds. For example, you might have an Asian man or woman who isn’t emotionally available, in a very stereotypical sense. So the only roles they’ll be called for are those where they might play someone who’s in love with a person from another faith.”
“My main aim as an agent is to reflect what’s already out there in the world, which encompasses a beautiful range of different ethnicities”
One of the school’s major successes is John Boyega,the British actor who shot to fame when he played stormtrooper Finn in the 2015 film Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Boyega praised Oguns as “my agent, my manager, my best friend, my brother… who has repped me since I was 16”. Most recently, the Peckham native played the title character in Georg Büchner’s 19th century German classic Woyzeck, in a new version written specially for him, staged at the Old Vic Theatre in London.
Ones to watch
Appointed MBE in 2014 for his services to the acting industry, North London local agent Femi Oguns was one of the driving forces behind the meteoric rise of John Boyega and countless other actors from diverse backgrounds. Here, he tells Woodberry Life about his visionary work and his plans for the future.
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