Since becoming an entertainer at a very young age at the prompting of her grandfather who liked to encourage her to perform, the Kenyan actress, Susan Wanjiru, otherwise known as Sue Wanjiru, has never looked back.
Her grandfather, she said, loved to be entertained and would therefore insist she dance for him and recite poems at the age of six in front of relatives.
“He would then get so excited and buy crates of beer for the adults and a crate of soda for the kids,” she explained.
However, Sue stated, she became a professional actress in 2010 after leaving the corporate world where she had worked as an accountant, which she studied for because there were no schools teaching acting courses in Kenya then.
The actress, whose interest is to continue learning the different aspects of film, including writing, said she prefers acting though because it makes her “feel satisfied and irrationally happy”.
Another thing that makes her happy is giving back to the society in the way of talent development. She does that by training young kids in acting through her organisation, Lokhem Kids Entertainment Ltd.
Last year, Sue was part of the Durban Talents programme of the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) and just concluded training at the Berlinale Talents, a component of the Berlin Film Festival in Germany. Of the experience in the two festivals, she said they were both out of this world.
“The level of networking and fun was an experience I cannot even explain. Durban Talents was the first and it was exciting to meet different filmmakers from other countries in Africa. Berlinale Talents was amazing, meeting people from different parts of the world was so much fun, and not to mention the acting studio workshops with experts from developed industries. It is one of those experiences that you would do over and over again, given a chance,” she said.
Asked how her experience in life has made her the person she is today, and Sue said she is happy about where she was born, adding that growing up in a loving family as well as life lessons and good education have made her stronger.
“I believe God gifted me with strong women in my life. My mum and late glam’ma (grandmother), who have taught me hard work, resilience and following through with goals, have made me into the strong God-fearing woman I am today. When I reflect on my past, it makes me keep going,” Sue stated.
Sue is glad she studied accounting because the knowledge acquired is invaluable, explaining that acting is definitely her first love.
There is no doubt that this is just the beginning, as Sue plans to produce films and has already started doing that on a small scale basis, with the short films whose scripts she writes.
