Nairobi News

He describes himself as an actor, MC, comic, writer, the ‘French Fries Whisperer’ and a radio host. But just who is Nick Ndeda?

He spoke to Nairobi News about his luck in landing several roles and getting employed in the entertainment industry in Kenya.

1. Why the motivation to do what you do? Money! But what is cool is that everything that I do happened because of another action. I started off as an actor, and I had a brother who wanted to be a radio presenter and I took him for an audition and unfortunately for him, I got the job. As an MC, it was also another unfortunate coincidence.

I went for Project Fame and the host of the night might have had one too many and I was asked to step in. On being a writer, it was because I have always loved stories. The reason why I started writing was because the stuff locally I was seeing was not pleasing. It did not excite me much. If you can write a composition, writing a script can’t be that hard. So I just tried.

2. What was your first on-screen show? That was NTV’s Higher Learning in 2010. It was another stroke of luck that got me the role. The role had already been cast to someone else and then the director changed his mind as he was not convinced with that person and he chose me. This was very last minute. After the first season, the writers of the show decided to take the show in a different way and I ended up being the main actor for a few season.

3. You met Lupita Nyong’o on one of your casting… I had to go through a six-part audition in which she was a part of. This was during the second season of Shuga. So the last day we were told to rap. I was like after all the acting I have done, it comes down to rapping? I gave it my all and Lupita was really impressed.

4. Did the acting pick up after school? No! I auditioned for a year and half and I was never picked for anything. In high school, I used to tell myself that once I’m done with school, all would be good. Boy, was I wrong! I even joined Alliance Francaise so that I could get to know about any auditions. My parents even gave me an ultimatum to go back to school and give up on the dream. Then I saw a poster of some audition of a Shakespeare show and I told myself ‘This is it’, and I got it. After that play, I was getting roles coming my way.

5. What made you drop out of campus? School has never really been my cup of tea. I dropped out when I was on my third year final semester. I would love to go back, but not do the same thing. I was studying Journalism and Psychology. The journalism was so that I could do TV, and the TV was so that I could act. Psychology is because I like reading.

6. Now for how you made it to radio… I will tell you one thing, if it wasn’t for my brother Jeremy Odhiambo, I wouldn’t be on the airwaves. He told me to accompany him for a radio audition at Homeboyz Radio and I had nothing to do. So after hours of queuing, it was his turn. So I left the line and the ushers were like ‘Where are you going? You stood up on the line for hours you might as well try.’ I did and just like that, I got it and he didn’t.

7. How many radio stations have you worked for and why the many changes? After three years with HBR, I moved to Hot 96 because I wanted another challenge and different genre of music. After that I had to go to South Africa for Jacob’s Cross. So when I came back I got a call from someone who told me that he hadn’t heard me on radio and had an opportunity for me. That is how I ended up at XFM. I have been doing X Breakfast for five years now.