For me it is not an inspiration, it’s a passion. I have been passionate about acting for as long as I could remember. I can’t really recall what made me to go into acting but I knew right from the beginning that it was what I had wanted to do.

I was surrounded by actors who had trained and it made me realize how much I didn’t know about simple things like stagecraft, voice work, warming up before a show. It was inspiring watching fellow actors having a process for what they do before a show. It just re-ignited a passion – or maybe just initiated it because I had never been on stage before. So that’s when I decided to go to drama school.

I’ve always taken an interest in theatre. Taking part in school plays was a passion that continued to grow in me and made me realise how strongly I felt about acting. Growing up, my mother used to take me to see plays all the time and I remember telling myself that I was going to do this one day. In fact, I actually started my acting career in theatre.

I was the one who initiated school plays and drama projects.

I’d been in love with acting from the age of six, and went to a school where drama was important, so had appeared in a lot of amateur productions – I fell for the theatre before the cinema. My parents were passionate about it too.

I think the appeal for me was several different things. I was quite shy when I was a child and I’d always done drama and music and that was really my outlet where I felt I could be really free. I’ve always been really interested in other people, and other people’s lives, and as an actor you get to experience, to a certain degree, walking in other people’s shoes and seeing things through their eyes. That, for me, was what appealed, I think initially.

Acting was actually my first love, but for some reason, that part of my life never really took off; so, I went back to film school, London film academy, studied film production/screenwriting and my whole film making career kicked off. What spurred me? I had always wanted to tell and share my story with the world.

Acting was the thing I wanted to do; it was the passion

I wasn't experienced in politics. The revolution in Burkina Faso certainly galvanized us. Women began to take the forefront of the political scene, before no one thought about it, it was reserved for men. So no, I did a performing arts option at university. I met great authors. And from there came my inspiration to go into theater. It's the place for me, as a woman, to exist by speaking at a higher level on a stage. I find it's the place of truth because you can't cheat the audience. We can convey things that people can't say, suffering inflicted on us women who are always walled up, who don't dare to speak out. And for me, theater was a revelation, even if it wasn't easy at first, but it's been going on for 30 years! At first, even my family, community, friends and everyone condemned me and said: "Why don't you go and look for a job with your degrees?

I decided to go into show business because I liked drama and wrote a screenplay when I was in Form Two or Form Three. Initially, I aimed to be a director, but my teacher classified me as an actor, so he chose the career for me.

I learned so much about myself that I didn't know prior. You're just constantly outputting, and giving all you know so you don't have time to look inside of yourself and to really reflect. The four years at drama school really gave me that time and space. I got to know myself much better, I think as not only as an actor, but as a person. I was reassured about my passion for acting. I was more confident coming out of drama school.

I can't now say what it was that originally drew me to performing, because it's very possible that at 6 it was just that I wanted people to be looking at me and paying attention to me. Then it sort of transformed into something that was really meaningful for me. ... It became the way that I learn about myself and the way that I learn about other people.

Oh my gosh, acting is an access for me to reach minds and spread the message of the things that I believe in.’’

Growing up, my love for theater was insatiable. I just love to make people laugh and clap and smile. When I discovered drama and the ability to move people to tears, it was so powerful. As much as you can feel like God created you to do something, I believe He made me to entertain.