by Sherif Awad
-I grew up in Lincolnshire, UK in a close family with just one brother, Adam, who is 6 1/2 years younger than me. We are still very close today. While living in Lincolnshire there were less opportunities and I never really had much interest in acting then anyway. As a child I had always been quite shy. My favourite subject at school was actually science. 19 years ago I moved to North Yorkshire and was unemployed at that time. I saw an advert in a local newspaper asking for TV Extras as there was a fair bit of filming happening in my new area. I responded to the advert and became involved with an agency in Leeds. Through this I played many small roles in TV programmes such as Heartbeat, The Royal and Emmerdale. This was enjoyable and gave me a great insight in to what the industry was like. It was then that I decided that I wanted to take things further and started to do some formal training. My role models were Nicole Kidman and Julia Roberts, lovely, skilled actresses.
-I then joined a local theatre school called Northac for 3 years. This taught me numerous valuable skills and gave me the opportunity to perform in live shows. Throughout my time there my passion was still for film and TV and as much as I do enjoy being on stage I felt like I needed a different type of education. After a bit of research in to different courses I found one that I quite liked in Newcastle. It offered and all round approach to acting and learning in all the different areas, with a film and TV module that was of particular interest to me. The course was a foundation degree in contemporary acting. I auditioned and secured a place. The course was three years long in total.
-I am fairly satisfied where I am in my career. I would indeed like to get a little bit more well known, but I am not seeking to be world-famous. So long as I have a nice steady stream of work coming in, I am quite content.
-In relation to gender, I do feel that there are some additional challenges. It is nothing to do with inequality though I hasten to add. There just simply tend to be less female roles in productions and there are more females in the industry. This means there is certainly more competition for the roles.
-Creativity in the UK is currently booming. With the addition of online streaming services there is much more going on now than ever before. The new talent coming up is very exciting.The casting biz is very hard. My agent will apply for 100s of jobs before I get accepted for an audition. This is pretty standard throughout as there are thousands of applications for every role. It can be very nerve-wracking going for an audition. This was especially the case during the early stages of my career. With experience the nerves do ease a little but not fully as you need some nerves to deliver a good performance. Often the auditions involve many other actors, which brings home just home much competition there is. Recently there have been some changes and more often it is possible to do self-tape auditions, which cuts down the need to travel to auditions. There are some advantages as more takes can be done and extra time can be taken. On the other hand it is good to get a feel for the directors, producers, other actors you may be working with etc in a face to face audition.
-For any role that I am offered I always do a great deal of research in to what the character should be like. To help me get in to character I also draw on my own experiences or to those of my family or friends if I don’t have the necessary experience myself.
-Personally, I am most proud of a young girl that I regularly play. She has severe learning difficulties. This is a live action role-play. Appearing in a thriller by Gerard Johnson was another highlight and also the horror films I have had good roles in have all given me a good sense of achievement with my work.
-As well as working in the entertainment industry I help my parents in the family business of managing holiday cottages in the area where we live. It is ideal with it being family, as it means I have work if I need it but can focus on my career as much as possible.
-My advice to newcomers is to never give up. Rejection is difficult, especially early in your career. It is unfortunately part and parcel of the industry but really is never personal. If you do manage to get any feed back use that to your advantage for the next audition. Often though it could just be something simple like they end up choosing someone taller or shorter so that they look right together with the other actor they are playing opposite. It certainly may be nothing you have done wrong in your audition at all. I was once down to 2 of us for a really nice role that I wanted a lot. The casting director liked what I did with the role but I had long hair, and they went with someone with extremely short hair. Being prepared to travel to auditions or filming, and at very short notice, is very important. Getting a good agent, (I got a new one when I finished my training) renewing headshots regularly and keeping your CV updated are also very important.
-I have a very good work/private life balance. Having a very supportive and understanding family makes me very lucky. It enables me to follow my dreams. I try to concentrate on one job at a time so as not to overload myself. It is not good for me if I have to work on too many characters at one time. One character at a time means I can really make that one more real.
-I have recently finished filming a horror film which will be released later this year. It is called The Devil Comes Calling. The company plan to make another and this is something I am hoping to be involved in. Live action role-play is ongoing. I am always open to new, exciting offers too.
