Hammed Animashaun

Hammed Animashaun born May 6 1991 is a British stage film and television actor Animashaun was born into a Nigerian family in Whitechapel in London His father was a bus driver and his mother a voluntary worker He had a growth spurt in college and one summer grew five inches His younger brother is 6 ft 9 Animashaun himself is 6 ft 3 He was encouraged by his school drama teacher to join the Half Moon Childrens Theatre in Londons Limehouse He studied philosophy with drama at university but dropped out when offered theatre roles He received second prize in the 2021 Ian Charleson Awards which recognise actors under the age of 30 in classical roles for his role as Bottom in A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Bridge Theatre He also won Best Supporting Actor at the WhatsOnStage Awards for the same production Other stage roles have included Master Haroldand the Boys Athol Fugards drama set in apartheid South Africa one of the Ugly Sisters in Cinderella at the Lyric Hammersmith The Producers at the Manchester Royal Exchange the original production of the Barber Shop Chronicles Rufus Norriss staging of The Threepenny Opera at the National and Michael Longhursts revival of Amadeus Animashaun appeared as Loial in the Amazon Prime Video series The Wheel of Time beginning in 2021 He stars in the 2023 BBC One comedy television series Black Ops alongside Gbemisola Ikumelo and Akemnji Ndifornyen playing an undercover policeman woefully out of his depth His character Kay has been described as a glasshalffull Godfearing gentle giant and the opposite of streetsmart He described the role on the show as a dream come true and that he kept expecting to be replaced for a bigger named actor in the role He has been praised for his chemistry with Ikumelo In 2023 he was awarded one of two scripted creators in residence for BBC Studios TalentWorks to work with producers on scripted comedy and drama