Meet Toheeb Jimoh, who plays Kwabena Bannerman in HBO’s Industry, alongside Myha’la
He looks up to rappers Stormzy and Dave, earned an Emmy nomination for his role in Ted Lasso, and was once told by Ian McKellen to ‘keep doing plays’
Episode five, Eyes Without a Face, focuses on Sweetpea Golightly (Miriam Petche) and Kwabena Bannerman, played by season newcomer Toheeb Jimoh, as they take their investigation into a shady company called Tender all the way to Ghana, where the latter’s family is from. “He doesn’t know anything about Ghana. He doesn’t really fit in here. He’s made himself the version of himself that he needs to be to really survive at work, and there are trade-offs when you do that,” Jimoh explained to Vulture.
The episode also delves into a potential romance between Sweetpea and Kwabena, despite the latter already being in an intimate relationship with Harper Stern (Myha’la).
So who is Toheeb Jimoh?
His upbringing
Toheeb Jimoh hails from Brixton, south London, where he was born in April 1997 to Nigerian parents. He spent his early childhood in Nigeria, returning to the UK to live around the age of seven, per the LA Times. “There’s a really cool, newly emerging idea of being a Black Brit,” he told the outlet, adding that he’s “finding [his] home” in stars who embody that idea, such as rappers Stormzy and Dave, and actor Daniel Kaluuya. Jimoh attended Norwood School in London, per The Guardian, and later graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Where have you seen him before?
You may have also seen Jimoh in shows like The Power and The Feed, or the film Anthony (2020). “A real priority for me is doing Nigerian stories told by Nigerians in Nigeria,” he told media platform Hyphen.