Today we’d like to introduce you to Antoine Bandele.
Hi Antoine, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Honestly, my story starts the same way a lot of creatives’ stories do — I was just a kid who loved disappearing into other worlds. Whether it was Star Wars, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harry Potter — you name it — if it had magic, epic quests, or lightsabers, I was there.
Writing actually called to me pretty early. My mom used to take me to Office Depot to get my little stories laminated — you know, real serious author energy at like seven years old. Later, right out of high school, I won a scholarship through Inner-City Filmmakers for a screenplay I wrote. Even in university, professors kept nudging me toward writing, telling me, “Hey, you might want to pursue this seriously.”
But… I kept looking elsewhere. Directing, art, content creation, streaming — if it was creative but not writing, I was chasing it. I guess I didn’t fully trust the call back then.
It wasn’t until Game of Thrones — specifically the end of Season 6 — that things clicked. I remember thinking, “Are there any books out there that are like an African Game of Thrones?” That simple question sent me down a rabbit hole of researching African history, mythology, and folklore.
And what I found? It was way richer, way deeper, and way more epic than anything I’d ever seen in pop culture growing up. That research eventually led to my debut novel, The Kishi — a dark fantasy rooted in Angolan mythology about a shapeshifting creature who can seduce you with one face and devour you with the other.
Since then, I’ve been building a career that fuses my love for fantasy, deep cultural roots, and storytelling. I dove headfirst into indie publishing because I wanted full control over my stories — especially the ones that traditional publishing wasn’t exactly lining up to champion back then. Along the way, I also built a YouTube channel where I geek out about books, anime, fantasy lore, and sometimes just general nerd chaos.
Now, I’m lucky enough to be writing full time-ish, living out that dream I didn’t even realize I’d been chasing all along.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not a smooth road. More like a dirt path full of potholes, loose gravel, and the occasional flat tire.
A lot of people see the end result — the books, the YouTube channel, the full-time-ish author life — and assume it was some kind of straight shot. It wasn’t. Not even close.
For a long time, I was doing everything except writing, even though the signs were all there. I thought maybe I was supposed to be a director, or an artist, or a streamer. I spread myself thin trying to do too many things at once and ended up not finishing much of anything. Creative burnout is real when you’re chasing every shiny object.
Then there was indie publishing. I love it, but it is not easy. You’re not just the writer. You’re the publisher, the marketer, the designer, the accountant, sometimes even the janitor. I had to figure out budgeting, ads, launches, cover redesigns, audiobook production, convention sales. It’s a lot, and most of it you have to learn by messing up first.
Visibility was another huge struggle. When you write fantasy stories centered around African mythology or characters of color, it can sometimes feel like you’re shouting into the void. There were definitely moments when I asked myself, “Does anyone even want this?” The answer was yes, but finding your people takes patience.
Still, I wouldn’t trade it. Every wrong turn, every failure, every lesson made me better. And every message from a reader who connected with the stories reminds me why it was worth it.
It wasn’t smooth. But it’s been worth every bump.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a storyteller at heart, across a few different lanes. Most people know me as a fantasy author who blends African and diasporic mythology into action-packed, character-driven stories. I specialize in culturally rooted fantasy, particularly the kind that feels just as epic and adventurous as the stuff we all grew up loving — but pulls from mythologies and cultures that don’t always get the spotlight.
Right now, my main series are TJ Young & The Orishas, which is like a West African spin on Percy Jackson, and The Arcane Files, an urban fantasy series set in New York with secret magic organizations and mythological chaos hidden in plain sight. I also have a YouTube channel where I geek out about Avatar: The Last Airbender, which has become a big part of how people discover my work.
As far as what I’m most proud of, a few things come to mind.
First, my series TJ Young & The Orishas was optioned for a movie adaptation, which still feels surreal every time I think about it. I also worked at Apple for five years while building my creative career on the side, which taught me a lot about patience, discipline, and how to balance a day job while chasing a dream. And hitting 100,000 subscribers on YouTube was a huge moment too. It was one of those milestones that made me realize, “Oh, people are actually paying attention to the weird little worlds I’m building.”
What sets me apart, I think, is my focus on cultural fantasy in spaces that traditionally didn’t leave much room for it. I want readers to feel the same sense of wonder they’d get from a Harry Potter or Game of Thrones–style story, but rooted in histories and mythologies that are just as deep, just as magical, and just as worthy. I also try to keep everything I create approachable, honest, and a little bit nerdy. Because at the end of the day, I’m just a kid who never grew out of loving magic. I just decided to start making my own.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up, I had a lot of energy. I wasn’t the class clown or anything — I wasn’t trying to be funny or perform — I was just a geek with a lot of enthusiasm. If I was excited about something, I really leaned into it. That might’ve made me come off as loud or a little much to other kids, but it wasn’t attention-seeking. I just had a lot of passion and zero chill.
Adults, weirdly enough, saw a different side of me. A lot of them would call me an old soul. I’d get into these long, thoughtful conversations with teachers or family friends, even as a kid. Meanwhile, I’d still be scribbling story ideas in notebooks or getting way too into whatever creative obsession I had that week.
I think I was always just drawn to ideas, to storytelling, to deeper meanings — even when I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing. That’s probably why I ended up where I am now.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://antoinebandele.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/antoine_bandele/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youtubeantoinebandele/
- Twitter: https://x.com/AntoineBandele
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/antoinebandele
