by Rachel Ogbu

Nigerian- British actor and writer Kayode Ewumi has been enjoying success following the launch of his mockumentary series #HoodDocumentary showing on BBC3.

The 23-year-old who won the BAFTA Breakthrough Brit of 2016 had been experimenting with the character Reece Simpson (aka RS, aka “Roll Safe”) via Vine videos online and with millions of views on YouTube before the TV series was commissioned on the BBC – now he’s being hailed as the hottest thing in UK comedy at the moment.

“I finished uni and started making my own stuff and putting it online – and it went from there. My goal was always to get into TV and film,” says Ewumi whose screen shot has become the meme of the year and has been titled the new face of Twitter memes. “I’ve done all right,” says Ewumi, “but there’s loads more I want to do: I’d like to get my own series off the ground and I want to start a site called Let Me Laugh, which will be a platform for young talented comics to showcase their work.”

Kayode Ewumi was born in the Elephant and Castle district of London, he went to City and Islington College and studied drama at Coventry University graduating in 2015 with first class honours. According to reports, whilst at school Ewumi got in contact with Tyrell Williams who gave him the idea of the spoof documentary ‘Hood Drama’. Describing HoodDocumentart, Ewumi says he’s “That guy in the hood convinced that he knows everyone and everything.”

Kayode Ewumi is doing more writing than actual acting these days. He joined the remake of sitcom ‘Are You Being Served?’ in 2016 and we expect to see him feature in the upcoming BBC2’s White Gold series and also in Angel 2.0, a short film in which he will appear alongside Vic Reeves and Jane Horrocks.