‘Nairobi Half Life’ Gangsta on the Oscars and Priesthood

Maina Olwenya, the actor who played the streetwise gangsta Oti in the popular Kenyan crime thriller, ‘Nairobi Half life’ wanted to be a priest before the acting bug bit him.In an interview with Word Is from Germany, Maina said, “I wanted to become a priest, so during one of our holiday camps as an altar boy, we got to watch the movie Sound of Music. This was the most fascinating thing I’d ever seen. I knew then, that acting was what I wanted to do.”He continued: “I never participated in high school drama festivals, I felt too big for it. I joined the Kenya National Theatre in 2006 for literature books performances. My first role to be cast was the Shylock in Shakespeare’s ‘Merchants of Venice’ since then I have been playing the ‘bad guy’.”The actor is in Germany together with the movie’s helmer, Tosh Gitonga for a series of set screenings of the movie in various towns. He said the tour would help him “spread my tentacles more in the international market as well as the African market.”Maina says they have submitted the movie to the Oscars for a chance to be nominated in the foreign category. He feels it will “definitely invite curiosity as it beckons the whole world and filmmakers at large to want to know what Kenya can produce. The Star

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‘Nairobi Half Life’ Gangsta on the Oscars and Priesthood