Today we’d like to introduce you to Ezekiel Ajeigbe.
Hi Ezekiel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I’ve always wanted to act since I was a kid, but I couldn’t officially start until I turned 18 due to a lack of parental support. Once I was a legal adult within industry standards, I began heavily researching how someone would go about becoming an actor. I was doing all of this all while attending the University of North Texas, studying electrical engineering and technology.
Soon, I found myself going out to auditions I stumbled upon online and doing short films as well as student films. Eventually, I met an actress on campus named Grace Victoria Patterson, who gave me some advice on how to secure an agent. Once I got my first agent back in early 2015, I began going out on commercial auditions and booked a few gigs for clients like Gatorade, WFAA News/ABC 8, and all of Dallas’s sports teams (Cowboys, Mavericks, Stars, Rangers, etc.).
Some time passes by and I find myself still acting, but studying a major that had no correlation to the arts. Soon a “tug of war” type battle began to happen internally, and I started questioning myself as to what I really wanted to do with my life. The answer was clear, but growing up in a Nigerian household, your only career options were becoming a doctor, lawyer, engineer, or any other high-paying respectable occupation. After about 5 grueling semesters of going to school studying electrical engineering and technology, I became depressed due to the fact that deep down all I wanted to do was act, and yet I was putting myself through a course I didn’t care for, only to make my parents proud. Soon I had enough and I decided it was time to tell my parents the truth about what I truly wanted to do with my life.
During the conversation between my traditional Nigerian parents and I, things became heavily heated very fast. They were trying to convince me that leaving school to go act wasn’t ideal and that I needed a degree to succeed in life. I disagreed and told them that all I wanted to do was act, so why waste time studying a major that I had no intent on using? The conversation became more heated and eventually ended with them telling me I’ll never make it, they won’t support me, and to collect what I came there for and go.
Mind you, at the time, I already had two commercials running on TV. My former girlfriend, as well as my sister, were both present in the room as the conversation occurred, so both can attest to being a witness to this event occurring.
In fear, I slaved away in school one last semester because I didn’t want to lose any kind of support from my parents, and I was trying to stay within my comfort zone to play things “safe.” That semester was my most depressing, low, unfulfilling one ever. The happy, high-energy, smiling kid was gone, and all that was left was a melancholic, silent, introverted me. Eventually, I received an opportunity to do a movie in Atlanta, Georgia that same semester, dropped all my classes, and prepared myself for a journey that I knew I had to do alone. Right after dropping all my classes, I Face Timed my girlfriend at the time, and the first thing that came out of her mouth was “I haven’t seen you smile like that in such a long time.”
I moved to Atlanta with no money, slept on a couch of the cousin of a director I worked within Texas and did what I could to stay afloat. She was a single woman in her early 40s, old enough to be my own mother. Mid filming, I got dropped from the movie for reasons I still don’t know till this day and had to find a new place to stay due to the fact that I wasn’t a direct relative to the individual that was housing me and the complex threatened to raise her renting if I continued to stay there.
Not knowing what to do, I began working as a server at On the Border to kind of help pay her bills while I was there, up until the point I had to leave. I wasn’t making much, so I picked up another job at a local Marriott hotel as the night auditor. So, during the day, I’d work as a server, and at night I would be at the hotel’s front desk. Both jobs weren’t giving me enough hours, so I ended up getting a third job on my days off at an electronic store called Lifeline Repairs in the Inman Park area of Atlanta.
Working three jobs soon became physically draining, to say the least, and I found myself having to sleep in my car from time to time in order to gain the strength to go to the next job. Soon my time with Mrs. Janice (the woman who let me stay with her) ended, and my parents surprisingly checked in on me to see how I was doing. I let them know I was looking for a place to stay, which is when they told me they had an old classmate of theirs who lived out there I could possibly stay with. At first, I was reluctant to take their offer, due to the fact that I know what it’s like staying in a Nigerian household and I didn’t want to be in that environment anymore. And also because of the former heated conversation my parents and I had prior to me pursuing my dreams. I weighed my options. It was either my car, which I uncomfortably slept in a handful of times before or a comfortable bed in a strict Nigerian household of people I know nothing about. I was highly considering my car because I didn’t want my parent’s old classmates to find out I wasn’t in school, due to the fact that I knew it would be an entirely new argument with more Nigerians that I wasn’t even related to. I missed the feeling of being in a real bed, so I made the decision to stay with the friends of my parents rather than my car.
While there at my parent’s former classmates house, I was went in hoping all would be well and they would be “chill.” But I was soon met with more judgment and belittlement from the man of the house. I was told that I was a waste of a life, called a failure, and told that I needed to return back to school and study something serious to become a – yup, you guessed it, doctor, lawyer, or engineer. I found myself avoiding him at all costs, all while working 3 jobs, trying to save enough money to get my own place. I didn’t let his words get to me, and I kept telling myself I was on the right path and did what I could to motivate my mind to stay in good spirits.
Every day was a new kind of chastisement in some form from him, and I just kept enduring it. There was no privacy for me there whatsoever. I could barely get any rest in the room I was told I could stay in, due to the fact that he would walk in at random without knocking. It was obvious he was doing such things to make it known that he was the “man of the house.” The holidays eventually came around and I was just going through the motions. One day he told me, and I quote “You need to find somewhere else to go because I’m having visitors come for Thanksgiving, and I don’t want to see you here when they’re around.” So, I contacted Mrs. Janice and told her I just need to crash for a couple weeks while I apply for apartments in the area. She agreed and I kept out of site in fear the property managers would see me at her place again and fully raise her rent.
I eventfully got my own place a 2 bed 1 bath in Greenbrier for a promotional price of $629. I quit 2 out of 3 of the jobs I had and kept working at the electronics store since they were giving me the most hours. I was only making about $11/hr, so after taxes, my rent was basically my entire check. I was always hungry around that time, as I couldn’t afford to eat or buy food, since most of my money was going to living expenses. This went on through the rest of winter into February of 2018. I remember at the top of the year I got booked for a movie called The House Invictus which is now on Amazon Prime, which was a highlight for me, but behind closed doors, I was struggling. I wasn’t eating, I couldn’t pay electricity bills, and sometimes would worry that I wouldn’t have enough funds to put gas in my car to get to and from work. I remember sleeping in my jackets on a little cot I used to make for myself out of blankets I had because I couldn’t afford a bed. I told nobody about what I was going through because I didn’t want any pity or to get in more conversations about what I should be doing with my life.
I pushed through as much as I could and a miracle happened. One of my castmates in the movie had a friend who needed a place to stay. He knew I had an extra room, so I rented it out to his friend and it cut all my expenses in half! I cried the day that happened because I knew this was a sign that things would get better soon. Eventually I ended up quitting my job at the electronic store due to the fact that I was working full time hours, doing managerial duties, (opening and locking up the store before and after close, taking new customer invoices, etc.) but was only getting paid an employee rate of $11/hr. Before I quit though, I asked for a raise and was offered $1 extra to my current pay.
After this I found myself driving for Lyft and Uber and had much more time freedom than before, and surprisingly was making a lot more than I did at any other job I had prior. Things indeed started getting better for me. I was booking more TV shows, doing movies, and was able to put food in my belly and pay all my bills. Eventually, I moved to LA, and have been here ever since. My parents eventually came back around and started physically showing me they supported me, which brought tears to my eyes. I’ve done so much in the 5 years since I left Texas! I’ve been on handfuls of TV shows such as Dynasty, BIGGER, Seal Team, All American, and more, and I’ve done modeling gigs for brands like Telsa, JUST Water, and Russell Athletics, and more! So, at this moment I’m currently living out my dreams and I haven’t looked back since.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It was not smooth at all. I listed quite a bit of the road bumps along the way in the previous section, but to add on to what I didn’t say; a lot of people had something negative to say about what I wanted to do with my life. Friends, co-workers, one of my agents at one point, and so on. So eventually I just stopped telling people what I wanted to do all together and kept it to myself and just actively did it instead.
Even being in LA was a struggle at first. My first year there I was sleeping on a twin-sized air mattress, on the floor, in the room of an old college roomate and acting comrade Raymond Watanga. I even lost my car my first 3 weeks of being there. Long story short, I wanted to continue my Lyft/Uber endeavors in LA to save up for my own place, but I had a small dent in my front bumper, and neither app would allow me to drive until I got it fixed. I took my car at the time to a body shop to fix it, and instead of fixing my car, they sold my car. No matter how many times I went up there to get my vehicle from them, they always gave me an excuse as to why they couldn’t. So, the entire first year I took the bus everywhere. And if you’ve taken public transit in LA or in general, you know it can take hours to go somewhere that’s literally a few miles away. I remember having to carry around a backpack with multiple outfits for different events I needed to attend throughout the day. Work, mixers, auditions, diners, etc., and I would get looked at weird in fine establishments because I had this huge backpack with me that had all my stuff in it. I had 152 auditions my first year there and it was nerve-wracking; not because I was nervous about my audition piece, but because taking public transit also means that sometimes your bus may be late or break down which would make anyone on it late to their destination.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an Actor, Model, and Film Producer. What makes me different is that there’s only one me, and there will never be another me.
I say this because people get so caught up in comparing themselves to others in their field, not realizing that they’re already bringing something “different” to their profession by simply being themselves. What you do well, the way you do it can only be done by you in that way. Being unapologetically you in your perspective skill set should set anyone apart.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs, or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I listen to a lot of Alux on YouTube. The place where future billionaires come to get inspired. That, along with having personal mentors who are where I want to be, and only keeping people with good energy around me has been very helpful also.
Pricing:
- Acting: $1250/day
- Modeling: $250/hr or $1500/day
- Producing: Price Negotiable
Contact Info:
- Email: ajeigbee@icloud.com
- Website: www.EzekielAjeigbe.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/iam_ezekiel_ajeigbe?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Other: https://beacons.page/ezekielajeigbe
Image Credits
Tesla
JUST Water
Seventh House Productions
The Kamanzi Company
STRYTLRS Production Co.
Roughneck Film Productions
Dream World Productions
The Hard R Movie
Grace Eleyae
Genie
