Meet Emani Shane of London

Today we’d like to introduce you to Emani Shane.

Hi Emani, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi,

My name is Emani Shane. Born and raised in East London.

My very first inspiration to pursue acting came from the huge collection of film cassettes (nearly 100) that I inherited from my older sister when she moved out of our family home. This ranged from nearly every Disney film, Michael Jackson ‘Moonwalker’, and other renowned stories. As a child, watching each film (at least 3 times minimum.. I’m not lying) enabled me to build emotional bonds to characters and storylines from an early age.
I performed in plays at primary school and my first lead role came through when I was 7 for ‘Grease’, playing Danny Zuko.
I felt at home – spotting my mother in the audience gave me all the confidence I needed – I fell in love with acting that day. She will forever be my driving force.

As I grew older, I deeply appreciated and became inspired by storytellers who looked like me – through black movies and comedic stories on Def Comedy Jam performed by established actors and comedians such as Bernie Mac, Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence, Bill Bellamy and Chris Tucker.

I attended Sylvia Young Theatre School when I was 13. I then studied Drama through GCSE and A-levels at secondary school and college; achieving A/A* grades. Furthering my work at Identity School of Acting in 2018. I gained my first set of experience on set through doing supporting-artist work on a few projects such as Giri / Haji on Netflix. Outside of education and training, Things changed when I signed my first professional agency contract which opened doors to the heights of the industry, working with notable talents and top casting and film directors. Big up the film crew as without them, filming wouldn’t be possible. I also worked with intimacy and fight coordinators.

The magnitude of auditions I was getting week-in week-out seemed like the level of someone who has a natural talent. I guess you could say this is when I started to “believe”. It consisted of film, TV and theatre projects from the UK, US and Europe – this was when I knew I’m supposed to be here.

However, prior to COVID 2019, I decided to take a step back from the industry to focus on finances, my corporate job, personal life and family balance;

However, over the years, the calling grew stronger and stronger to the point where I couldn’t ignore it any longer. Life consistently placed certain people in my path, most of the time them being strangers, who somehow kept reminding me of where I’m supposed to be. Too much synchronicity to just minimise it to “..these things just happen”. I answered that call and now I am back and better than ever. I’ve taken my level of commitment even further and aspire to honour my soul and what it wants – to express itself.

Life helps you understand that you are always where you need to be; with people who are meant to be with you.
I’m always looking to learn from the best and improve my skills, so I reconnected with the amazing talents who nurtured and helped develop my journey as an artist from the very beginning. Now, with an unstoppable drive that pushes me to train, audition and perform whenever the opportunity arises, I know this time round things will be different.

Film, TV, Theatre, MT, Commercials, Voice, Gaming, Animation and Audiobooks. I can do it all.

I want to become a storyteller in all forms – I am a storyteller in all forms.
No limits. No expectations. Just be.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It most definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. If I’m honest, I thought things would have differently. Much earlier in terms of timing I suppose. But life has a habit of never going to plan.

The passing of my mother completely ripped my being from the roots. it created a domino effect in my life. It changed the dynamics of everyone who was in my life during that time and how I viewed self-love.
Life, as I knew it, collapsed and I had to learn to live without the person I always thought would be there through all my major milestones – the day I get married. My first child. My big break. A gift to her to say ‘thank you’ once I am in a position to do so. Gone. I know she’s still with me in spirit, but a hug, or a phone call just to hear her laugh again, would help make the weight of grief a little lighter.

Big up my therapist, Emmanuel. He helped me find the building blocks of my new foundation whilst learning how to forgive myself and others.

I fell in love with me again – this is where the new lease of life has come from.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m most proud of myself for pushing through. For ignoring the doubts. For respecting time. For feeding my hunger. For letting things unfold into what’s meant for me. I don’t view success in the big trophies, accolades and fame, although they are nice things to have. I see success in doing the things you love – for reasons that have nothing to do with ego, but because you love what you do.

What sets me apart is the love I put into my craft.

There’s still many more things to come..

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Yeah, I’ve opted for the scarier, more unstable route of fulfilment compared to what most people would do. This is satisfying for me though. Not talking down on stability or ‘9-5’s’ whatsoever, at one point it was what I preferred, but a lot of people judged me when I told them what I wanted to do with my life. Some even ridiculed the thought.
People have found their passions in other areas of life that don’t follow the creative arts route. Some people don’t aspire to be seen. Some want to climb the corporate ladder. Some people have exactly what they always dreamed of (marraige, kids, the house, stable job) – they have achieved what they wanted in life.
This life is yours to do as you please.

In my opinion, taking risks gives you a feeling like no other. Especially the feeling you get when it pays off.

“We have one life so why not go for it? You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. You never know what will stem from this. What’s the most exciting choice? If you can see it, in another timeline, you already have it. Will you be happier if you did this instead? Is there an unexplainable, insatiable itch? Make the most of now.”

Did I miss anything? Lol

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @emanishane

Image Credits
Lumosia

Actors Headshots London