EXCLUSIVE: Stars Wars actor John Boyega, Black Panther’s Letitia Wright and Snowfall lead Damson Idris are among patrons of newly opened LA drama school Identity School of Acting.
The West Hollywood-located school, which opened this week, is the LA branch of the successful London institution of the same name, which has produced actors including Boyega, Wright and Idris as well as Roots star Malachi Kirby and Dark Matter actress Melanie Liburd, who are are also patrons of the LA faculty.
The part-time school auditioned close to 1,000 actors over the summer and has enrolled 200 for its first term. Each semester will run for three months with modules taught by acting coaches and theater practitioners from Europe and the U.S.
While open to all, the student intake at the groundbreaking London branch of the school has historically skewed towards ethnic minorities in a bid to improve screen and stage diversity. The 900-strong UK cohort is now a truly multicultural collection of young talent and the LA branch is expected to reflect similar diversity.
Identity’s founder and principal is Femi Oguns, who also oversees growing talent agency and management firm IAG, which counts Boyega, Wright, Liburd, Kirby and Idris among its impressive roster.
Oguns told us, “We’ve disrupted the industry in the UK with our vast array of talent who have been nurtured and developed using our unique teaching methods. Some of them have now gone on to become global successes, with many more to follow, and we want to replicate that success with the fantastic talent in the U.S.”
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