🇿🇲 Born + 🇺🇸 LA Based Storyteller. ✍🏾 My storytelling began with the opening line of a novel I read at 13. It was immediate, it was urgent. I had to write my own. First a line. Then a paragraph, then a story. I’ve been striking paper with pen for that spark ever since. 🎤 The poetry in me was aroused during a late night broadcast of the BBC’s top 100. It was “Looking at the front door” by Main Source that inspired me to see hip hop as another one of my storytelling windows. 📺 But it was advertising that showed me first hand the persuasive power of words. Concise, precise and minimalistic. The thrill of a killer headline, the exhilaration of a campaign slogan that would stay in people’s minds forever! As a copywriter for Young & Rubicam, I wrote the shortest stories with long lasting effects for television, radio, and print. I used myself for voiceovers, modeling and commercial acting. It was here that my actor voice got louder. 🎬 I knew growing up that my life was a theme park of human emotions - empathy, compassion, kindness, lonesomeness and other universal humanity connectors. I brought these themes to stories for brands. Inside tho I knew I wanted to share my story using myself as the “brand.” 🚀 After years of being at the big agency, I convinced a dear friend of mine to join me in founding a different kind of agency, one that would give us the keys to our true passions. We founded Coeur de Lion in 2009 and became brand strategists. Success brought the means for me to retire the corporate suit and adorn the student life. And so after five years building a two man startup into a successful midsize agency, I flew the safety coup and landed at the Stella Adler Academy of Acting in 2012. 🎭 At acting school I realized that everything I learned through music and advertising was useful for acting. Essence, objective, through line. It is all about communicating the big idea. Storytelling, I realized, was in everything I did. All the years in different industries were me walking my path to my true self. ❤️ So, I’m not a writer, a rapper, a copywriter, or actor. I am a storyteller. And Akende is my name. Nice to meet you. imdb.me/akendemunalula