‘I went from Ipswich to New York to pursue my acting dream’

When Jonny-James Kajoba developed an appetite for the performing arts as a child, he knew he wanted to do everything he could to make it a career.

Born in Ipswich, Kajoba became a chorister at St Mary le Tower at the age of five.

During his A-levels, he became one of thousands to be accepted into the prestigious Juilliard School for drama in New York, USA.

Now a year on from graduating, the 22-year-old has worked on several plays and short films, and will star in a Broadway show next year.

Kajoba said his parents pushed him academically, but he spent a lot of his youth learning to play piano, violin and the harp while enjoying after school and weekend drama clubs.

A pivotal moment he said was when he was inspired by a show at the Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich.

“I didn’t really know what it meant to be an actor, whether that was something that someone could do,” he explained.

“I went to see this play and I was so mesmerised at how something on stage could be so beautiful.

“It wasn’t just acting itself, it was the whole production of it all.”

In secondary school, Kajoba would spend lunchtimes looking up drama school requirements and learning monologues.

He continued to perform in shows and notably in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London when he was 16.

During his A-levels, he set his sights on Juilliard and started the long application process while applying to UK universities as a “backup plan”.

He had to submit videos of himself reciting monologues, and he nearly gave up on the application until he found out the admissions deadline had been extended.

He was soon invited for in-person auditions in New York in January 2020 and once there, he made it through countless rounds.

“Everybody around me was like, ‘Jonny, you’re going to get it’, but you have to understand that was one day out of like 30 days of auditions they do,” he explained.

He returned to his A-Levels and his final audition was staged online because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

A short time later, on the day his school was sent home for lockdown, he was told he had been accepted into Juilliard’s class for 2020, made up of just 18 students.

“I was running around… I could not believe it, I made it to Juilliard,” he said.

“Out of between 6,000 to 8,000 people, 18 got in.”

Kajoba started online classes in July 2020 before later moving to New York in October for his studies.

“Across the four years, we only perform publicly in the third and fourth year because the first two years are all about the interior work you do as an actor,” he added.

“One thing the head of the division always used to say is, ‘We are training you for a 70-year career’.

“It’s about building yourself as a true artist.”

In his fourth year, Kajoba was signed to a New York talent agency and he received the John Houseman Award for acting.

It is given to the actor who displays exceptional ability in classic theatre and he said it was “an honour to be part of that legacy”.

Kajoba, who still lives in New York, continued: “Juilliard really allowed me to meet myself, meet the version of myself I was always meant to be.

“Of course that changes everyday, but I’m just so grateful for that gift and the fact I get to honour that in every play, film, whatever that I do.”

Kajoba has already worked on some short films as well as several plays.

He recently starred in a short film called Seek No Favor produced by Carmen Cuba, a well-known Los Angeles producer, that is currently in post-production.

He will start work on another film called Good Mourning this month, and is due to star in a Broadway theatre show called Spare Parts next year.

“I used to say this when I was 14 or 15 years old, to my friends; the big, big dream is that I produce my own films.

“I want to make projects that make audiences think, ‘OK, how did you do that?’, in the sense that creating something that goes beyond language and physicality.

“I want to do that while uplifting voices that are not necessarily given the space to do that.”