Kenya’s Alex Khayo is among the three finalists for BET’s dramatic reality contest “Top Actor Africa”, making him the first Kenyan actor to make it to the top 3.
He will be competing against Jesse Suntele and Shamilla Miller, both from South Africa for the grand prize that includes the coveted title of Top Actor Africa, $10,000 (Ksh 1,000,000), international representation and access to Hollywood auditions.
Khayo, an actor and a commercial model has experience both in TV and Theatre and has featured in several TV commercials as well as other roles in TV programmes like Pendo on NTV.
Top Actor Africa selected 12 actors to participate in the reality show in November last year and has been testing them in nine grueling acting challenges, taking them through every genre from Improv to Comedy, Theatre, Soapie, Commercial, Romance, Horror, Drama and Action. Those who made it for the challenge are 7 South Africans, 3 Nigerians and 2 Kenyans.
“Top Actor Africa” airs on BET (DStv channel 129) every Tuesday night at 19:30 EAT.
In this week’s show, the last 4 contestants were tasked with “Romantic Period Piece”; joined by actor/celebrity Erica Ash (Real Husbands of Hollywood and “Survivor Remorse”), the actors embarked on the hardest challenge to date. While Jesse, Shamilla and Alex rose to the challenge and emotional Tobechi Nneji (Nigeria) failed to make the cut, took her final curtain call on the show.
As they approach the final hurdle, the 3 finalists will be tasked with their final challenge, “Action Movie”, in which they will have to pull out all the stops to convince the judges that they deserve the Top Actor Africa crown.
“Finally my art has been internationally recognised, making it to top 3 is as good as a win, now more than ever it all makes sense that hard-work and prayers truly work. I see this as an opportunity to showcase my acting ability, having tackled every single genre in acting, I can literally walk onto a set and confidently put up a performance of a lifetime,” said Alex.
Commented Jesse, “I feel really excited and blessed to have made it this far. At first I was simply overjoyed by the fact that I made it to the top 12! Winning the entire competition was still just a dim idea I had in the back of my mind. I just thought the show would be a great platform to learn how to become a better actor and to expose my talent to the world.”
Concluded Shamilla, “I am so grateful to be part of this programme and making it to top 3 has built my confidence in the craft. As an aspiring actress this platform will enable and open great opportunities in the industry. The experience in Top Actor Africa is incredibly challenging but so great and I have learnt so much in this short time.”
With just a few weeks remaining until the winner is announced, BET viewers will be able to vote for their favourite Top Actor by visiting www.betafrica.tv from tomorrow, Wednesday 4 May to Tuesday 10 May. The winner will be revealed on Tuesday 24 May at 20:30 EAT.
