Draft:Kolade Shasi

Kolade Shasi (born May 3rd 1986) is a British-born, Nigerian Actor, Casting Director and Producer. He is best known for featuring in Jadesola Osiberu's crime drama; The Trade (2023), which premiered in Cinemas on January 13, 2023 and premiered globally via Amazon Prime on march 17, 2023 He was part of the Casting team for the Netflix Original YA series;  Far From Home

Early life and education
Kolade was born in Manchester, in the County of Greater Manchester to Nigerian parents, and he is of Yoruba Nigerian descent. He is the youngest of four children.

Actor
Kolade’s first foray into film, was as a teenage actor and his first role was in a Charles Novia film in 2001; Afro, where he played the titular role of a younger Afro with Segun Arinze portraying the older Afro. He took a break to finish school before coming back to acting in 2012. Since then he has featured in a number of movies including The Trade (2023), Ibukun, Kasala (film), Slow Country,  Uncommon Events and Ripple Effect. Kolade was nominated for the Best Actor at the In-short International Film Festival, Lagos, in 2015, for the multi-award winning film; Blood Taxi.

Casting Director
Kolade Shasi is one of the top Casting Directors in Africa, he is one of only two African Casting Directors who are members of the International Casting Directors Association. His Casting Directing credits span over 10 years and over 50 projects including Television Commercials, feature films, short films and music videos. Some of his projects have gone on to win Best Actor awards or break Box Office records. His Casting credits include the Netflix Original YA series; Far From Home, an Amazon Prime Video Original film; Breath of Life (TBA),  Simi’s music video; Owambe (2017), the Box Office record-breaker; Couple of Days (2016) and the multi-award winning Employee of the Month (2022).

Producer
Kolade has produced over 30 films and advertorials over the years. His film credits include Date Night (2018), starring Adesua Etomi and Deyemi Okanlawon, the Joke Silva-led Bandits (2017) , In Sickness and Health (2018) starring OC Ukeje, Beverly Naya and Meg Otanwa, Divorce Settlement (2021), Spite (2022), Worlds Apart (2022) and the multi-award winning Employee of the Month (2022) which has screened at over 20 Film Festivals around the world and winning the Best short film at many of these festivals, including the Best Short Film, emerging Filmmaker at the American Pavilion at Cannes Film Festival in May, 2023.