By Akanni Dorcas
Sam Adegoke is a Nigerian actor who gained fame in the United States in 2017 when he joined the cast of Dynasty (The CW, 2017–), a reboot of the 1980s soap opera.
Born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, Adegoke always wanted to be an actor. To pursue his dream, he moved to Los Angeles in the early 2010s to focus on building a career in Hollywood.
Adegoke began acting in 2014 by appearing in short films like ‘I’m Good’ and ‘’Find Your Instrument.
These roles gave him his first on-camera experiences. In 2015, he achieved a major breakthrough by winning the ABC Discovers Digital Talent Competition, beating over 7,000 contestants. This victory earned him a one-year, $25,000 talent deal with ABC and a guest role on Wicked City (ABC, 2015).
His career continued to grow after this success. In 2016, he secured a recurring role on Murder in the First (TNT, 2014-16) and appeared in six episodes of Switched at Birth (ABC Family, 2011-17) the next year. Within a short time, Adegoke went from being unknown to becoming a recognised actor in Hollywood.
On January 30, 2017, Adegoke took on a lead role in the Lifetime biopic ‘Michael Jackson: Searching for Neverland’, playing Michael Jackson’s bodyguard, Javon Beard. He also appeared in recurring roles on
Murder in the First and guest-starred on Code Black and NCIS: Los Angeles.
Adegoke’s big break came in February 2017 when he was cast as Jeff Colby in Dynasty. The show, a reboot of the classic 1980s series, premiered on The CW in October 2017 and cemented Adegoke’s place in the entertainment industry. He suggested to showrunner Sallie Patrick that his character be Nigerian, which led to the casting of Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Jeff’s father, Cecil Colby. This change introduced Nigerian culture and dialogue in both English and Yoruba.
In 2018, Adegoke starred in the indie film ‘8000 Shots’, later renamed ‘This Is Not a War Story’. Directed by Talia Lugacy and co-produced by Rosario Dawson, the film featured him as Will Larue, a combat veteran dealing with war trauma and the loss of a fellow veteran to suicide. The film was released in 2021.
In June 2023, Adegoke worked with Lugacy again on ‘Dark Days & the Dawn’. In 2024, Adegoke joined the Peacock miniseries ‘Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist’ in a recurring role.
The post Meet Sam Adegoke, the Nigerian actor taking over Hollywood with his style appeared first on Vanguard News.
