Turned Around
Ink Pellet|March 2017

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

Susan Elkin
Turned Around

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.”

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FLERE HISTORIER FRA INK PELLETSe alt
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What Makes A Good Pantomime?
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A Rye Gem
Ink Pellet

A Rye Gem

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Playing Shakespeare With Deutsche Bank
Ink Pellet

Playing Shakespeare With Deutsche Bank

Proving an unmitigated success, the annual Playing Shakespeare season at The Globe promises to enthral, engage and entertain thousands more teenagers this spring. Susan Elkin is a huge, well wrapped up fan.

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3 mins  |
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Dancers Wellbeing
Ink Pellet

Dancers Wellbeing

As the Head of Dance at READ College, I am passionate about ensuring that my young students have the very best start to their professional dance training and consequently their future careers. This means educating our young people about how to look after themselves both physically and psychologically.

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3 mins  |
March 2017
Supporting Students Through Design
Ink Pellet

Supporting Students Through Design

Hot on the heels of the new digital Theatre+ platform release featured in last month’s Inkpellet (see bit.ly/Ip112Nov16), we asked matthew Nichols (director of drama, manchester Grammar school and chief Examiner of GcsE drama, aQa) to take us through his ideal playlist on dT+, as a guide for drama teachers looking to use digital resources to support the teaching of design skills in the classroom.

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January 2017
Careers In Theatre
Ink Pellet

Careers In Theatre

Susan Elkin Pays a Visit to Half Moon Theatre to Learn How They Are Enthusing Pupils to Look at Possible Careers in the Theatre.

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January 2017