Samson Kayo

Samson Kayo
Born	London, England
Occupation	Actor Writer Producer
Years active	2013–present

Samson Kayo (born 1991 or 1992) is a British comedy actor, producer and writer. He was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance in 2018 for the BBC sketch show Famalam and in 2022 for the Sky One sitcom Bloods, which he created and wrote. He also created and stars in Sliced, and his other credits include Youngers, Timewasters, and Our Flag Means Death.

Biography

Kayo is of Nigerian descent. He said that growing up in Peckham, he only wanted to be a footballer, but developed an interest in comedy through Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and British comedian Jocelyn Jee Esien, who inspired him as a black person to enter comedy. He was a childhood friend of John Boyega, with whom he attended church. When he went out to pick up an iron for his mother, he found an open audition for the Channel 4 comedy Youngers, and was cast.

Kayo was nominated for Best Male Comedy Performance at the 2018 British Academy Television Awards for his part in the BBC sketch show Famalam. From 2017 to 2019, he was part of the main cast of the ITV2 sitcom Timewasters, in which a Black British jazz quartet are transported through time to the London of the 1920s and 1950s in each series. He is the creator, writer and lead of the takeaway-based sitcom Sliced on Dave since 2019. He also created and plays the lead Maleek on paramedic-focused sitcom Bloods, which debuted on Sky One in 2021 while being based on an eight-minute short film on Sky Arts. He was nominated for Best Male Comedy Performance at the 2022 British Academy Television Awards for this role.

In 2020, Kayo featured in Nick Frost and Simon Pegg's horror comedy series Truth Seekers. A year later, he starred in David Jenkins and Taika Waititi's pirate-based romantic comedy series Our Flag Means Death, which was produced in the United States. He told The Irish Times that although many British actors of colour found more opportunity in the United States, he was committed to making more British series.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2018	Grandpa's Great Escape	Gravedigger Vince
2019	The Colonel Banjoko Show	Colonel Banjoko
2020	Dolittle	Pirate
2022	The Bubble	Bola
2022	Puss in Boots: The Last Wish	Baby Bear (voice)

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2013	Youngers	Boss Fury
2015	The Javone Prince Show	Various
2016	We the Jury	Don
2017	Murder in Successville	Will.i.am
	Comedy Playhouse	Dillon
	Hailmakers	Sol
	Timewasters	Horace / Aston
2018	Sky Comedy Shorts	Maleek
2017-2020	Famalam	Various
2019	Urban Myths	Basil
2019-2020	Sliced	Joshua
2020	Truth Seekers	Elton John
2021-2022	Bloods	Maleek
2022	Our Flag Means Death	Oluwande

External links

• Samson Kayo at the Internet Movie Database