Acting
May 5, 1991
Whitechapel, London, England, UK
Hammed Animashaun
Acting
Biography
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 Children's Theatre in London's 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 Night’s 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 Harold”...and the Boys, Athol Fugard’s 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 Norris’s staging of The Threepenny Opera at the National and Michael Longhurst’s 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 “glass-half-full, God-fearing gentle giant and the opposite of street-smart.” 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.
Feature Films (14)
The story of two totally contrasting figures who come together in the most hostile of circumstances, only to form an unlikely bond that will help them both find a way out of their respective troubles. It is a bittersweet comedy about growing up and rediscovering youth in parallel, united by the subconscious desire to seek out the missing elements in their lives.
Borrowed Time
St George's Park Tea Room, Port Elizabeth, 1950. On a long rainy afternoon, employees Sam and Willie practise their steps for the finals of the ballroom dancing championship. Hally arrives from school to hide out in his parents' tea room. These two men have been unlikely best friends to Hally his whole life. But it is apartheid era South Africa: he's Master Harold, and they are the boys. Tony Award-winning playwright Athol Fugard's semi-autobiographical and blistering masterwork explores the nature of friendship, and the ways people are capable of hurting even those they love.
National Theatre Live: 'Master Harold'... and the boys
After losing his mother, a lonely boy decides to (literally) dig up some new friends, but when they mysteriously come back to life, he’s launched into a series of misadventures as he tries to keep their secret safe from neighbors, classmates and social workers alike.
The Loneliest Boy in the World
Two friends sit in a kebab shop in London. One tells the other a story he'd heard about a boy who'd recently been stabbed by a gang in the street. He'd staggered into the very kebab shop they are sitting in, desperately looking for somewhere to hide, pursued by the gang, looking to finish him off. But the gang hadn't thought about the shop's owners...
The Ellington Kid
Television & Series (13)
The lives of five young villagers change forever when a strange and powerful woman arrives, claiming one of them is the child of an ancient prophecy with the power to tip the balance between Light and Dark forever. They must choose whether to trust this stranger – and each other – with the fate of the world before the Dark One breaks out of His prison, and the Last Battle begins.
The Wheel of Time
Dom and Kay join the Met Police in the hope of cleaning up their community, but are unwittingly thrust into the murky world of deep cover infiltration as they become part of a powerful criminal enterprise. But for Dom and Kay it quickly becomes more of a fiasco than Donnie Brasco…
Black Ops
Twisted tales run wild in this mind-bending anthology series that reveals humanity's worst traits, greatest innovations and more.
Black Mirror
Philomena Cunk and friends take a look back at the major events of our 2019th year.
Cunk & Other Humans on 2019
Eleven-year-old Kevin's passion for history is put to the test when he joins a ragtag group of time-traveling thieves on a high-stakes and hilarious adventure.
