Like many of us, Akingbola had grown up watching the Will Smith sitcom, which is widely considered to be a watershed moment for Black television and tells the story of a West Philadelphia teenager who is sent to live with his wealthy uncle in Bel-Air. However,\u00a0that wasn\u2019t the only reason why earning the role of the British butler was so significant.<\/p>\n
\u201cWill Smith is playing [Fresh Prince executive producer] Benny Medina. Benny Medina was adopted by a white American family. So as a kid, I grew up watching a version of myself,\u201d Akingbola tells RadioTimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWill is playing me and I just didn\u2019t know it. This is a cultural, iconic, global hit sitcom that is still being watched today \u2013 that is a care story and now I\u2019m playing Geoffrey in the drama version. You can\u2019t make that up.\u201d<\/p>\n While many regular TV-watchers will recognise the 44-year-old from ITV drama The Tower, superhero series Arrow, BBC sitcom Rev or even from his stint in Holby City, few will know of his experience in foster care. At the age of two, Akingbola was uprooted from his Nigerian family and adopted by a white British foster family, most of whom feature in his upcoming ITV documentary Handle with Care.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is probably the proudest thing I\u2019ve ever made,\u201d he tells me over Zoom from his home in LA. It\u2019s 2:30am in the morning over there but he\u2019s full of life and chatty, keen to spread the word about this deeply personal project.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I looked at care stories that I\u2019d seen on TV or film or documentaries \u2013 just the way things are rolled out in the media, I just thought it was always negative. It was always a bit clickbait-y and mining trauma.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that I had a squeaky clean, nothing-bad-happened-to-me upbringing. There are things I\u2019ve overcome, but overall, it was a positive experience and I\u2019ve met other people where they\u2019ve had positive experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Losing multiple family members during the pandemic led Akingbola to reflect on his own upbringing and foster care experience. The London-born actor decided that it was time to \u201cface his past\u201d, as he says in the documentary, and share his story.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to tell a story that is celebrating and inspiring and has a hero element to it \u2013 that could be the parents that are fostering or the biological parents who try their best, like my dad. He\u2019s not the villain. He\u2019s still one of the heroes of the film.\u201d<\/p>\n When Akingbola was a toddler,\u00a0his birth parents separated after his father suspected that his mother \u2013 who was unknowingly suffering with schizophrenia \u2013 had been unfaithful and that Akingbola was not his biological son. Looking after her son became too much to bear whilst battling a mental illness and in 1979, she handed him over to social services.<\/p>\n While the actor was loved by his adopted parents, East London family the Crows, Akingbola admits that filming the documentary brought up feelings of\u00a0 \u201csadness and abandonment\u201d as well as \u201cjoy, laughter and great memories\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI was still a young boy going, \u2018Well, where\u2019s my biological mum and dad?\u201d and when you\u2019re about six or seven, that\u2019s confusing, you know? I didn\u2019t want it to be like when I say I had a positive upbringing that I didn\u2019t have to work through anything, that I didn\u2019t overcome any trauma. Of course [I did], and that\u2019s why I say in the documentary, there\u2019s always a bit of trauma there for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n In the film, we meet both Akingbola\u2019s older biological siblings, who he reconnected with as he grew up, and his foster siblings \u2013 and while they were happy to take part in the documentary, he reveals that his foster mother Gloria took some convincing.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was a mixture of things, [like] \u2018I don\u2019t want a camera on me,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018It\u2019s a love letter to you and dad and everyone,\u2019 and she said, \u2018I know you love me, you don\u2019t have to do that.’\u201d<\/p>\n Akingbola\u2019s adoration for Gloria, who he hadn\u2019t managed to see for several years due to work and the pandemic, is clear both over Zoom and in the documentary, particularly since she refuses to acknowledge that her fostering efforts were extraordinary.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the documentary, she\u2019s like, \u2018Ah, anyone would have done it,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018No \u2013 not everyone does this. Not everyone does it in a way that you did it,’\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cOver time, it generated discussion with my foster siblings and they would have conversations with mum over a cup of tea and I think she realised, \u2018Hey, this is an important story to tell.\u2019 It\u2019s about the universal story of unconditional love, and how a bit of love can save a child and change a child\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n While Handle with Care is yet to air, the actor reveals that its screening has already inspired one family to look into adoption. \u201cThey messaged me saying, \u2018We were very moved and we\u2019ve been thinking about it for a few years but after watching the documentary, we stopped thinking about it and we\u2019re going to definitely adopt a child in the next year.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how many people are going to do that but it was very nice to get that one message and it just reminded me that you never know how this will affect people in a positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n Akingbola\u2019s isn\u2019t the only story to be told in the film, with Line of Duty\u2019s Lennie James and Olympic athlete Kriss Akabusi also appearing \u2013 however, both celebrities had very different experiences of the care system, with Akabusi speaking of the abuse he received at the hands of various foster parents.<\/p>\n \u201cI just DM\u2019d [Kriss] on Instagram and he decided to share his story with me,\u201d Akingbola continues.\u00a0\u201cAnd actually, what I will say about Kriss\u2019s \u2013 it was negative but I had a talk with him, I said, \u2018Let\u2019s flip that.\u2019 That\u2019s why you hear him say that the children\u2019s home was his saviour.<\/p>\n \u201cIn some ways, you could say it\u2019s negative, or you could say it\u2019s positive that it saved him and you could say that his story is positive because he is the man he is today, he\u2019s come all this way.\u201d<\/p>\n There were other celebrities that Akingbola wanted to include, from Lorraine Pascale to Seal, but with only an hour to fill, it wasn\u2019t possible. \u201cMaybe that will be for the Netflix one,\u201d he smiles. \u201cAlso what it did do was make me think about an American version as well.<\/p>\n \u201cTiffany Haddish has her own care story and I think of people like Sandra Bullock and Angelina Jolie, there\u2019s so many versions of that.\u201d<\/p>\n Taking Handle with Care to the US shouldn\u2019t be too hard considering the actor is already based in LA, where he\u2019s currently filming the second season of Bel-Air. On how working in the States differs to the UK, Akingbola says it\u2019s \u201ca bit more cutthroat\u201d in America.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like if you have a bit of a wobbly day off or a week off, unless you\u2019re number one, you can find yourself not in a job anymore,\u201d he says, before adding that he still can\u2019t believe he\u2019s working in Hollywood.<\/p>\n \u201cI walk with joy in my heart,\u201d he adds. \u201cI\u2019m working on the Universal lot, seeing the Jaws set and the Back to the Future car.\u201d<\/p>\n However, he continues to return to the UK to film The Tower, the ITV adaptation of Kate London\u2019s Metropolitan novels in which he plays DC Steve Bradshaw. \u201cThe whole thing about the phone is still hanging in the air,\u201d he teases. \u201cIt feels gritty and different. I look at it and I\u2019m going, \u2018This doesn\u2019t feel like a normal ITV drama.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I love about this is it\u2019s a female-led drama. Gemma Whelan and Tahirah Sharif are amazing in it. Tamzin Outhwaite is going to be in it as well; she\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n With The Tower, Handle with Care and his panel show Sorry I Didn\u2019t Know being ITV properties, Akingbola adds that he\u2019s felt \u201cembraced\u201d by the channel.<\/p>\n \u201cI was talking to Tamzin Outhwaite and she\u2019s like, \u2018You\u2019re ITV talent. I never got the golden handshake deal.\u2019 Sometimes I thought the UK found it hard to nurture and embrace talent and it\u2019s very nice that at this point in my career that I feel ITV is embracing me as well as my production company.<\/p>\n \u201cI just hope that increases across the board, that it\u2019s not a sense of just\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>production company or\u00a0that<\/em> actor. I think there still needs to be more diversity and inclusion across the board and funded by the company.\u201d<\/p>\n In the meantime, Akingbola is happy to be having an impact on the industry with Sorry I Didn\u2019t Know, which features an all-Black panel and fills \u201ca very important gap\u201d, but also through Handle with Care.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a storyteller as well as an actor, I do produce and I\u2019m an artist and I want to be able to look back and leave something behind that had an impact on the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Jimmy Akingbola Handle with Care airs on Tuesday 1st November at 9pm on ITV. <\/strong>Check out more of our\u00a0Documentaries<\/a>\u00a0coverage or visit our\u00a0TV Guide<\/a>\u00a0to see what\u2019s on tonight.<\/strong><\/p>\n The latest issue of Radio Times is on sale now \u2013\u00a0subscribe now<\/a>\u00a0to get each issue delivered to your door.\u00a0<\/strong>For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to the<\/strong>\u00a0Radio Times View From My Sofa podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/body><\/html>\n By Lauren Morris Published: Saturday, 29 October 2022 at 12:00 am When Jimmy Akingbola was cast to play Geoffrey Thompson in Bel-Air \u2013 Peacock\u2019s dramatic, gritty take on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air \u2013 it was, unsurprisingly, a major milestone in his acting career. Like many of us, Akingbola had grown up watching the Will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":24802,"template":"","categories":[1,5],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/jimmy-akingbola-on-sharing-his-foster-care-story-and-working-in-cutthroat-hollywood.jpg",620,413,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/jimmy-akingbola-on-sharing-his-foster-care-story-and-working-in-cutthroat-hollywood-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/jimmy-akingbola-on-sharing-his-foster-care-story-and-working-in-cutthroat-hollywood-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/jimmy-akingbola-on-sharing-his-foster-care-story-and-working-in-cutthroat-hollywood.jpg",620,413,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/jimmy-akingbola-on-sharing-his-foster-care-story-and-working-in-cutthroat-hollywood.jpg",620,413,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/jimmy-akingbola-on-sharing-his-foster-care-story-and-working-in-cutthroat-hollywood.jpg",620,413,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/56\/2022\/10\/jimmy-akingbola-on-sharing-his-foster-care-story-and-working-in-cutthroat-hollywood.jpg",620,413,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Lauren Morris Published: Saturday, 29 October 2022 at 12:00 am When Jimmy Akingbola was cast to play Geoffrey Thompson in Bel-Air \u2013 Peacock\u2019s dramatic, gritty take on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air \u2013 it was, unsurprisingly, a major milestone in his acting career. 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