Turned Around

Ben Ofoedu chats with Susan Elkin about his life and career, from global singing star to scene-stealing genie and beyond.

- Susan Elkin

He bounds beaming up the stairs to meet me in a Mexican café in Soho. He has chosen this establishment because they’ve given him a Gold Card in acknowledgement of his celebrity status. His rather magnificent faux fur coat is flapping and he’s all smiles and warmth. He then tucks into a plate of six scrambled eggs (with spicy sauce on the side) without toast, presumably, because – he runs and gyms of course – he fuels his considerable energy and 6 foot 4 inch frame on a high protein diet. Ben Ofoedu, singer, actor, DJ, TV personality and partner to Vanessa Feltz is, in short, good company and fun to interview.

He is often described as “Anglo Nigerian” – a term he’s quite happy with although it was coined by a former interviewee and not a descriptor he ever chose. “My parents were Nigerian (Igbo tribe) but I was born in Hong Kong – the middle child of six – because my dad was a merchant seaman. But he had a house in the UK and when I was about two we settled in Essex where I grew up.” Ben’s natural speaking voice is richly Essex but he has a gift for accents (“easy – they’re like singing”) and I’m treated to everything from Jamaican to Scots during the course of our conversation.

He has clearly thought long and hard about his late father – his mother, eighteen years younger is still alive. “My dad was pretty strict. He’d been poor – very poor – as a child in Nigeria and was desperate for us to seize the opportunities we had because he hadn’t had them. Of course he would have liked me to be a lawyer or a doctor and be good at maths like he was.”