Rising Star Tony Ofori On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Entertainment Industry
An Interview With Edward Sylvan
It’s not personal it’s business — There are so many moving pieces when it comes to productions. Ultimately decisions have to be made in order to produce a product. I was once not hired for a job because I was a recurring character on another show on the same network. Had I not known someone on the inside, I would have assumed casting didn’t like my work. It’s not so black and white. Do your best work and contribute to creating the world of the story. That’s all you can control.
As a part of our series about creating a successful career in TV and Film, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Tony Ofori.
Tony Ofori is a fast-rising actor based in Toronto, Canada. Tony has had his sights set on showbiz at a young age when he would perform songs and dances for his family. His grandfather fostered his love for the arts taking him to see theatrical shows and musicals where he solidified his love for acting. He honed his craft by attending summer camps as well as taking drama in high school. Tony would go on to attend a three-year theatre conservatory at Humber College, later completing a theatre studies program at York University. His professional debut was in Donald Margulies’ The Model Apartment at the Toronto Centre for the Performing Arts. This launched his career, granting him the privilege of performing in some of Canada’s most prestigious theatres.
His first big break came when he was cast in the popular American superhero television series Supergirl. Since then, Tony has appeared in several major film and television productions including The Boys, Coroner, American Gods, and Song & Story: Amazing Grace (OWN Network). Coming up next, Tony will recur as Malcolm in the highly anticipated third season of the hit children’s mystery television series Ghostwriter streaming on Apple TV+. Most recently, he was nominated for the prestigious 2022 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role for Soulpepper Theatre Company’s production of American playwright Dominique Morisseau’s play, Pipeline. Other future projects include playing Canada’s very first Black Track and Field Olympian and legend John Armstrong Howard on the upcoming season of the mystery drama series Murdoch Mysteries.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I was born and raised in Toronto in the North York, Jane and Lawrence area. I lived with my mother and father, and it remain this way until I was 11. This is when my siblings came along. By this time, it was too late, I was already used to being an only child. I grew up in an African household. This meant a lot of music, a lot of dancing a lot of outings. We would always spend Saturday mornings cleaning the house while blasting Ghana’s version of Michael Jackson, Daddy Klumba. On Sundays, we would attend church. African church service was about three hours long. The service was so long that food was sold outside the church. Good times. I was involved in a lot of extracurricular activities like soccer, dance and finally acting camp, which helped me discover my love for the craft.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
My love for the arts began when my grandfather took me to see Aladdin on Ice. He saw how much I loved it and arranged it so I would go to acting camp every year till I was 16. I was very much into soccer growing up but never had ambitions to play professionally. See, where I grew up, everyone had hoop dreams or dreams of being a rap star. Hanging around on the block, I was drawn to the latter. I learned to freestyle, filling my mp3 with instrumentals. I would rap everywhere as my friends banged out beats on the table, even phone booths, as my buddies beatboxed, and crowds began to gather. I was really good. The dream got bigger. I thought this could be it. Finally, I found my passion. The idea of post-secondary didn’t feel real. I mean I WAS going to go to university. I was going to study to become a teacher. A respectable profession that would keep people off my back. It wasn’t until my graduating year, that my drama teacher sat and asked me how I felt about going to post-secondary school to become an actor. Again, people from the hood never thought one of us could become actors. We never knew any Black Canadian Actors . He put it this way. My voice, my art, needed to be heard. For the dreamers, the unrepresented and people who never thought it possible. So I went off to study acting at Humber College and later continued my studies for my BFA with honours at York University all while still pursuing music. But the better my music career was doing, the more I learned about myself and the deeper into acting I dove. My group and I opened for artists like ASAP Rocky, Massari, and the Roots, but finally, I found my voice in the acting world and put music on the shelf
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I think it’s crazy and interesting to work in our profession during these times of Covid. We are one of the few professions where we meet strangers and get to interact with them without a mask. In order to have these privileges we test two to three times week and are required to mask up when not working in a scene. This one live performance I was a part of, required me to test every day because I had a kissing scene. To ensure we were safe to kiss every night, we had to test every day. So, one day I get to work, and everyone has a worried look on their face. I even catch one of my colleagues on my way to the change room to prepare for the two-show day. “What’s going on man?” “Dude, I got the virus”. I could see how hard it was for him. He felt like he let the team down, but he didn’t, it’s just the times were living in. I had the impulse to hug him. I didn’t. That would have been irresponsible. It wasn’t until I got into the theatre when I learned that the woman, I kissed in one of my scenes night after night had also caught the virus. This was bad. I was the lead of the show! If I went down, which obviously I would since I was swapping spit with someone who tested positive, there would probably be no show. This was the first day of the last week of our show mind you. I tested negative in the morning but again I was kissing someone who tested positive. I was sent home and mailed a battery-powered Lucira test which takes about an hour to produce a result. Turns out I didn’t get the virus!! We had to bring in understudies to step in for our two lost actors, but I dodged a bullet. A part of me felt it was because I was meant to tell this story. When I was nominated for a Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in a Leading Role, I knew that much was true. That was divine intervention.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I think failure is a part of what we do. We go to rehearsal, or we read a script for the first time, we have an idea, we make offers and sometimes that requires failure to understand the character and the story being told. Mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of in our industry. In fact, it is encouraged to fail miserably so you can get down to the meat of the work.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I just wrapped on Murdoch Mysteries a few days ago which was such a great time. The team there is on the ball. It’s no wonder they are on season 16. Everyone there is happy to be there, efficient and all hands are on deck in tell this very specific period piece. This is the first time I got to play a historical figure on television. I play a character named John Armstrong Howard, who is the first black Canadian 100-meter track and field Olympian. His journey is very interesting and the story of this black man’s contribution to Canadian history is one, we as Canadians, have yet to explore before this time.
In a couple of weeks, I’m scheduled to appear on Star Trek which is cool! I’ve never been to space!
Lastly in November, I’ll be working on an adaption of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s famous novel Fall on Your Knees with Canadian Stage. We will also be bringing the show to London, Ottawa and Halifax.
You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
One thing I’ll say is to focus on the work. Our job as actors when we get the text is to seek the truth of the moment. Auditioning is our job. Getting the role is the cherry on top. Just because we don’t book everything, we go out for it doesn’t mean that we are not good enough. There are many factors that are out of our control that contribute to why we may or may not get the job. Too tall, not tall enough, look too much like this or that, better or cuter than the lead, etc. If we can’t certain things, it’s best to not worry about it. What we CAN control is what we contribute to the telling of the story. Not every job can be ours.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
Well for one, if film and TV is a representation of the world we live in, then it should mirror that. The truth is all types of people occupy different spaces. Why not reflect that in the media? In the same way the media informs the public. The media can be damaging if it continuously portrays a specific race/culture in a certain light. Especially to those who are a little more ignorant enough to believe some of these tropes and stereotypes that exist. Representation matters. Lastly, there are so many stories to be told outside the lens of victors of wars and colonizers. We can’t pretend the world only exists in America. There is so much education in hearing diverse stories told by non-white storytellers.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
Success in this industry is a journey not a destination
I graduated top of my class in theatre school. I thought I would make it big in the industry as soon as I got out. This was clearly false. And I’m glad it didn’t happen this way. I got to live and experience things that helped make my art, and my attitude toward my work so much stronger. This business is hard, and slowly our goals will be met, but it’s important to celebrate the little victories as well because years ago, the old you would have loved to be in the position you are in right now
It’s not personal it’s business
There are so many moving pieces when it comes to productions. Ultimately decisions have to be made in order to produce a product. I was once not hired for a job because I was a recurring character on another show on the same network. Had I not known someone on the inside, I would have assumed casting didn’t like my work. It’s not so black and white. Do your best work and contribute to creating the world of the story. That’s all you can control.
It’s okay to say no
One of the hardest things to do as an artist is to say no to work. Especially when all we want to do is work. Friends, I would encourage you to look at what is in your wheelhouse and what you want from your career and begin building. It’s okay to say no if a project or the people on it make you uncomfortable. Believe me, you will work again and trust in God that he will answer your prayers if you allow him to do his work. There have been times I’ve said no to projects for ethical reasons, great projects that could have really helped me financially. The opportunity that came back weeks after was even bigger than what I turned down. Trust your gut, trust in God and trust the process
Be well prepared enough to let it all go.
We all want to make sure we show up on the day prepared. Careful to not show up so prepared and ridged that there is no listening going on and you are not reacting truthfully to what is going on around you. I remember I was working on hit TV show American Gods and this actor enters the scene and delivers his line beautifully. Just how he rehearsed it at home, but in the context of the story, his delivery was not gelling. Remember we are contributing to the story being told… it’s really not about us or our ego at all.
The training never stops, and the work is never finished.
As artists, we are students of discovery. We must not only have this obsessive curiosity about the world we are playing in, or scene and our character, but also this same curiosity about ourselves and the world we are living in as people. All this gives us a better understanding of the human condition in which characters are created. Enjoy the play. Enjoy the discovery. During the pandemic, I took a zoom Meisner class in LA. I was looking to go deeper into my work, but I had no idea how I was going to do it, and what I was looking for when training in this new technique. For me, my listening was activated and in that allowed me to play more with what my scene partner was giving me.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Don’t forget to live. Take vacations and do the things you enjoy away from acting! All those experiences and feelings are needed to succeed in the work, or you have nothing to bring to it.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I really like what Jordan Peele is doing with his stories by Black people without it being about race. There’re so many stories out there that can be told by black bodies, but we don’t tell it. I think it would be cool to have a black Hollywood production where we have black artists being celebrated and playing roles that they wouldn’t have the opportunity to play otherwise. It’s amazing that the Shamier Anderson and his brother Stephan James created the Legacy Awards which gave us the opportunity to celebrate Black Canadians in the entertainment industry. I think it would be amazing to see more of that. Give our brothers and sisters a space where they can play together, and it does not have to be because they’re telling a black story but just because they’re telling stories as Black People
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
Honestly, I wouldn’t be where I am today without my parents and my grandfather that’s for sure. And obviously, God has bestowed this amazing talent on me so I could not be here without him. But special shout out to my wife Christina. She is always looking out for my best interests, gets home tired and still makes the time to help me with my self-tapes or help me talk out big business or career-making moves. But most importantly she forces me to work on my balance. I would work myself to the bone, but she teaches me to stop and smell the roses and take the time to celebrate my successes. I could not be as full as I am right now without her by my side.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
One of my acting mentors Emmanuel Kabango once told me “Different level different devil”. What does this mean? We create goals for ourselves, and we have this idea that once we reach that goal, things will be easier for us. But once we get to this checkpoint what we fail to realize is that there’s another set of troubles or obstacles that we have to learn to navigate. Our troubles never just disappear. So as we move forward we must learn to continue to adapt and learn so that we can be prepared for whatever is ahead of us.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
If I could, I would have breakfast or lunch with Michael Jackson. I grew up watching him as a performer. I was born in the 1990s, so I was born when he was at his prime. He taught me so much about the entertainment industry and it was the first time I had the opportunity to see the effect of music and how it could heal the world. I would like to sit down and talk to someone who had such an influence in the world
How can our readers follow you online?
You can follow me on IG Tony_Ofori, you can check out my website at www.tonyofori.com and soon I’ll have a Twitter up so stay tuned for that.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
About The Interviewer: Growing up in Canada, Edward Sylvan was an unlikely candidate to make a mark on the high-powered film industry based in Hollywood. But as CEO of Sycamore Entertainment Group Inc, (SEGI) Sylvan is among a select group of less than ten Black executives who have founded, own and control a publicly traded company. Now, deeply involved in the movie business, he is providing opportunities for people of color. In 2020, he was appointed president of the Monaco International Film Festival, and was encouraged to take the festival in a new digital direction. Raised in Toronto, he attended York University where he studied Economics and Political Science, then went to work in finance on Bay Street, (the city’s equivalent of Wall Street). After years of handling equities trading, film tax credits, options trading and mergers and acquisitions for the film, mining and technology industries, in 2008 he decided to reorient his career fully towards the entertainment business. With the aim of helping Los Angeles filmmakers of color who were struggling to understand how to raise capital, Sylvan wanted to provide them with ways to finance their creative endeavors.
