ACTOR MWAURA BILAL SPEAKS ABOUT QUITTING LAW SCHOOL TO PURSUE ACTING

Popular actor Mwaura Bilal opened up about his upbringing and life in school. In an exclusive interview with Cheptoek Boyo, the actor famed for his role on Netflix films 40 Sticks and Uradi disclosed that he went to Alliance High School for his secondary education.  

Bilal also said that he wanted to pursue drama and literature after completing high school but having studied at Alliance High School, he was discouraged from taking the courses. 

“High school I went to Alliance High School and it was a challenge selecting courses for university. I wanted to choose drama and study at Moi University or literature and go to University of Nairobi but my career teacher told me coming from this school (Alliance) we can’t do such courses. Because you’re expected to choose law, medicine, architecture and I was like, ‘my heart is in the performing arts’,” Bilal said. 

The actor joined University of Nairobi (UoN) to pursue law but dropped out, “I went to UoN school of law but I heard stage rehearsal for a play I was doing and I used to miss a lot of cuts and I thought ‘why I was doing in two things at the same time?’ so I quit law school. I told my dad not to pay school fees and I told him I want to do acting,” headded. 

Later in 2010, Bilal joined Kenyatta University to  study Theatre Arts and Film Technology but dropped out again, “I went to Kenyatta University to study Theatre Arts and Film Technology but I didn’t complete, I left after two years. I’m a serial dropout. In 2010, it was still a new course because we were the second intake so equipment and lecturers were a challenge and I would sit there and ask myself, ‘why I’m I here’,” he disclosed. 

Bilal also spoke on his relationship with the late Derrick Amunga (Master Sugu) saying he helped his acting career at a time he was almost giving up. “After failing auditions I became a fan and I used to go and watch FCA plays, one day while I was waiting to pay for my date’s ticket, the late Derrick Amunga saw me on the line and he was like, ‘what are you doing? And asked me to go for an FCA audition. The reason why I say I feel privileged is because God, the universe kept bringing the right people my way at the right time,” Bilal noted.

The actor also explained his decision to quit stage management and focus of acting, “I got into stage management and in 2010 I decided to go back to acting set books because the scene started shifting. They started doing plays with older actors so I found myself out of work. Jacob Otieno (Jacko) saw me performing one day and he was like, ‘I see it but it is very raw. You need to work on your craft otherwise you’ll just be another talking head actor’.

He held my hand, he started giving me books, he introduced me to method acting and Stanislavski and got me a book about fundamentals of writing. He made me understand how the stage shapes actors and I had seen it. My first screen experience I didn’t feel like it stretched me,” he stated.