KEVIN SAMUEL ON HIS PLANS TO RETIRE FROM ACTING, SINGING FOR 2 PRESIDENTS AND THE ADVISE HE RECEIVED FROM ALICIA KEYS

Former Mali actor Kevin Samuel has revealed that he is considering retiring from acting, In an interview with Buzz Central’s Cheptoek Boyo. He said that he took a break to focus on other things, among them battling drug addiction, and he is now back to the acting scene to play one more series before his retirement to pursue his public health studies in Paris, France, where his family resides.

“I just decided to pursue other things other than acting, and I worked a lot with young people who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs. I also helped in setting up an entrepreneurship academy. So I got really into that line of work, and over the past three years, I have gotten interested in the field of health and psychology.” He said.

“To be honest, Igiza is not really my return to the scene. I have decided I will do one more series before I  finally bow and move out of the industry because I felt with Mali, I didn’t have a chance to do that. It was very intense and ended quite abruptly. This is a way to kind of wrap up everything I have done in the field and say goodbye.” He added.

Amidst an impressive acting career, Kevin is also a musician and an alumnus of Berklee College of Music. He has performed for former Presidents Daniel Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki, his highness Aga Khan and American Singer Alicia Keys. He attributed his successes to persistence and consistency and advised musicians to always work hard and put in more effort. 

“A big part of it is putting in the work. I wrote, performed, and sent a lot of music. I was never the kind of performer with screaming fans. Sometimes you don’t necessarily have to be the musician who has all the fans and a million followers on Insta but have the things that will make your music career take a different shape.”

Kevin Samuel recounted when he performed for Alicia Keys in 2006, terming it a ‘major highlight.’ He stated that after the performance, Alicia invited him for a talk and advised him to always have a clear visual definition of his goals.

“She could see how passionate I was. But also how confused and unfocused I was. In her conversation, she kept saying, ‘you’ve got to learn how to focus’ like she didn’t know me, but it’s interesting how intuitively she picked up something I needed to work on. It took me years to figure out, but Alicia was right. She gave me advice that was not pertinent to music but to my life in general. I am really grateful.”