Today I welcome the award winning actor, author, director and comedian, Michael Obiora to Bookmarks and Stages. In the interview as you scroll down, you’ll discover his latest role of being Scott Foley in upcoming 6 part ITV/ITVX drama, Out There, which also stars award winning actor, Martin Clunes. We also cover a new book, comedy and so much more in what is a fascinating, deeply insightful interview.
At the end you’ll also find some useful links, including the trailer to Out There and where you can pre-order his new book.

1. You started your tv acting career when you were a child on favourite teen school programme Grange Hill, how did this give you grounding for building the successful acting career you have now as an adult and were there different or similar challenges you faced in transitioning from being a child actor to coming of an age of seeking out and auditioning for more adult roles?

Most of my appreciation of the foundation Grange Hill gave me as an actor has come from hindsight. Notwithstanding that, even at such a young age I was aware how lucky I was. The things I took in my stride were things like the jargon used on set to describe certain processes.
By the time I was twelve, set lingo like “turning over,’ “sound speed,” etc were second nature to me. In my early twenties I remember being on set with actors of a similar age – or even older – who had just graduated from drama school, and I could see how daunting some of them found the whole process.
There’s a fearlessness and naivety one has when they’re so young. So actually, working from such a young age was incredible for my confidence.

In terms of making the transition from child star to adult actor, again I was lucky. I worked solidly from the age of nine until about twenty-two. I had heard about how difficult it can be to make that transition, but it was not my experience at all. The hardest part for me was dealing with my first bout of unemployment as an actor. Again, that was something I’d always heard of; “ninety-nine percent of actors are out of work,” etc. But it happened the other way around for me – instead of going to drama school, then coming out and struggling to find work as most actors do, I had built up years of professional experience. Which ironically made it very difficult for me to process having no work lined up.

2. Very excitedly, you are about to star in new drama, “Out There” with the wonderful Martin Clunes, which tells the story of county lines, community, rural life, modern farming and grief & loss.

What attracted you to these themes and how important do you feel it is that this story is told?

I’d describe Out There as a UK version of Breaking Bad, and Ozark. I think Ozark is one of the greatest TV series ever made, so that was enough for me.
All good stories have universal themes – so that in itself is enough to make a particular story important.

3. You play Scott who is ex-army and embodies intellectual charming charisma, yet evasive when it comes to questions about himself. He seems quite complex in personality.

How did you get into character and did you do any research for this role?

Coincidentally, not long before filming there was a particular individual – who Scott reminded me of – that was causing myself and my family a lot of stress. I felt an enormous amount of anger towards this person. But the more I got into character, the less anger I felt. I still dislike that individual, but playing Scott made me feel a lot more empathy. Similar to that person, Scott finds himself in a desperate situation. People aren’t necessarily able to show the best side of themselves when they’re operating from a place of desperation. Being an actor has definitely made me a more empathetic person in general.

4. You’re a parent, has the themes had any impact on your parenting in any way and what does it make you think differently of the dangers some people encounter?

Being a parent has changed the way I think about almost everything.
Sometimes it gets to the point where I have to actively compartmentalise my sense of danger, or any anxieties I have.
I have very little judgement towards how people parent their children. It is incredibly difficult being a parent, and I genuinely believe most people are trying their best.

In Out There we see the road it appears Martin Clunes’ son is going down, and we also see that he is a good kid, with a good father. When a young boy or girl ends up in a particular situation one often comes to stereotypical conclusions – bad parenting, etc. But like many things in life, things aren’t always as black and white as that.

5. There are times when you aren’t acting, but writing novels, which happen to be critically acclaimed such as “Black Shoes” and “Vivian’s Couch”, what or who inspired you to write books?

Quite Simply; Necessity Is The Mother Of Invention.
Even though I have now written three books it was never my intention to become an author. I started writing because as my profile increased with Hotel Babylon, it became more and more apparent that I had a platform. I’ve always been aware how lucky I was to occupy any of the spaces I earned, so I just wanted to maximise it. I started by writing the parts I wanted to play.

6. You will have your first children’s book, published in March 2025 called “Zee Zee The Humble Bee”, teaching balancing celebrating her talents and being humble in a rhyming story, can you tell a bit more of the plot and what age group it’s aimed for?

Zee Zee The Humble Bee is about a confident young bee that is the fastest in her hive. From a young age I learned that often people don’t want to see other people happy, or win in any way. So I wanted to write a fun rhyming story about the joys of learning, teaching, and being humble. It’s aimed at kids up to age seven, maybe even older because I also consider it a book for adults.

7. When you were 11 and on Grange Hill, your teacher commented rather harshly about you smiling, telling you about how you weren’t on camera in the school corridor.

How did that make you feel and inform you of your choices now as a parent to encourage your children to follow their dreams?

Her comments to me completely informed this book. Zee Zee The Humble Bee is a love letter to my younger self, and more importantly a love letter to my daughter.

When my teacher made that comment I was devastated. I became an incredibly angry, and paranoid child after that. The idea of my daughter’s confidence or personality being altered in a similar way, at such a young age is unacceptable to me. I wish I had somebody to speak to about the way the teacher made me feel at the time. This book is me addressing that, and it’s also a book for adults who, whilst navigating the messiness of life may pick up bitterness. This is not a judgement call but rather me highlighting something that I think is somewhat inevitable.
Maybe life gets less fun as we get older, maybe we get more weighed down by our baggage. But children are so beautiful, and free, we can teach them humility – or anything else – in a loving way.

Our childhood years are our formative years, and adults have a responsibility to be mindful about the way we speak to children.

8. This January you are starring in your own written and directed stand-up
comedy “Joe Kerr: Laughter is Therapy.”

What inspired the title and how therapeutic do you feel it is for people to laugh
and what do you gain out of making audiences laugh?

I have a stack of scripts and stories I have written over the past few years.
When I sat down and read them they all left me with a feeling of sadness. It was a clear illustration of how my creative mind tends to work; dark/moody.
So Joe Kerr came out of me wanting to write something upbeat, funny, and positive. That still didn’t end up being the end product! So I now realise that the gift of it all is that performing is therapy for me. It doesn’t necessarily have to be funny, but expressing myself makes me feel better.
I’ve never had a problem showing my emotions – that’s what makes me a good actor. My emotions are so readily available. But I think it’s a gift and curse. It’s a pathology.

In Joe Kerr, the comic – Joe – performs his stand up routine on stage, despite the fact that hours before his set his father dies. This actually happened to me in real life. When I was sixteen years old I was the lead in a play at the Royal Court theatre. It was an enormous deal, and to this day remains one of my proudest moments. Hours after my dad died I went on stage despite the protestations of my fellow cast members, and the play’s director. But cancelling the show wasn’t an option for me. Being on stage felt like the safest place for me. I actually felt fortunate that it was an option. Obviously that experience will remain with me forever, and the more I ruminated over it, the more the Joe Kerr film took shape.

9. You joke about many stereotypes, the British accent, the way some language is used, how did you develop the punchlines to make it funny?

The jokes about the British accent came from the amount of time I’ve spent in America over the past fifteen or twenty years. Obviously race relations are famously polarising in America, it never seems to recede. But one thing that has always given me a feeling of safety is the way a lot of people react when I open my mouth over there. Who knows what goes through people’s heads but I’m sure on sight at the very least it’s “that’s an African American male.” And then when I speak, “Oh… he’s…British..? Black… British?” Suddenly people are less suspicious of me. They seem to perceive me as less of a threat. I think that’s funny.

10. Your comedy is topical and edgy about sexuality, how people view you when you’ve had a taste of fame.

What makes you choose what material to keep and how do you choose your boundaries as in how far you want to push the topic in the comedy?

Writer’s tend to advise, “write what you know,” and I think in general that’s good advice.
Most of the stories in Joe Kerr are anecdotal. I guess writing them through a character gives one more of a pass. So in terms of choosing topics I feel I can get away with more when speaking as a different person. But comedy is a lot of truth said in jest, therefore comedians have to be brave by virtue of what they do.

11. Humble is a theme in your children’s book and in your comedy in very different ways, how do you ensure you stay humble?

To be honest up until writing Zee Zee The Humble Bee I’ve never really liked the word humble. In my experience people use that term to put others down, or to disguise their jealousy.
I’m not particularly interested in humility because I think it’s hard to quantify. Somebody can literally call somebody humble because they like that person. Some people label others arrogant simply because they don’t like that person. And people have prejudices towards different people for all sorts of reasons. And once somebody has an idea in their head, they can easily find a way to justify that idea.

What I would say is that the older I get, the less competitive I am. And now that I’m a dad my life is easier than before. It’s harder in that there are more tangible pressures. But at the end of the day – and I mean literally when we’re putting our daughter to sleep – as long as her stomach is full, and she feels safe, I just don’t care about anything else. To care about somebody else’s wellbeing in every sense of the word, is humbling.

12. Does the different strands of your careers of actor, author, comedian aid each
other in any form and if so, in what way?

Absolutely! These all keep my creative juices flowing. And the more that
happens, the more chance I have of getting into the state of “Flow.” It’s a
difficult state to describe, but when I find myself in that space, I feel euphoric.

13. What’s next for you in your careers?

Alongside the film I’ll be putting out a comedy album version of Joe Kerr:
Laughter Is Therapy very soon. I’ve written another Joe Kerr comedy special.
I’ve written two more short films that I’ll act in and direct. I’ll be releasing a
book of poetry soon, and another children’s book. And I’ve completed two
other short films that I’ll be releasing over the next year.

Out There will air on ITV1/ITVX from Sunday 19th January, 9pm
Watch the Official Trailer here: Out There

Zee Zee The Humble Bee can be purchased from many bookshops, here are a few

Troubador Publishing      Waterstones   WH Smith     Coles Books     Amazon