4 minute read
Taofique Folarin
Brian Butler catches up with out and proud performer Taofique Folarin, who has something to say about being queer and the wellbeing of their community
As a child performer in Wolverhampton, Taofique Folarin quickly progressed to the National Youth Music Theatre, doing shows in Easter and summer holidays. At 16 he enrolled with the world-famous Italia Conti school. ”It was 100% what I wanted to do: I discovered you could make a living out of theatre”. He tells me frankly that he was very aware of racial prejudice at school. “You got a thick skin. It was systemic in the private school I attended. I was the one black boy in my year.” His first big break was an ensemble dancing role in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. On sexuality he tells me:
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Before he graduated, he played Tyrone in a Dutch tour of the musical Fame, coming back to graduate. “Fame was a highlight for me – I was so young”. He followed it with two years in Avenue Q in the West End. “I had to learn puppetry and it’s very hard”. Then came the allblack Five Guys Named Moe, and a stint in the Lion King as Banzai the hyena, again displaying puppetry skills, with the added complication of performing on stilts and a massive harness to hold the head gear.
Taofique is the latest queer actor I’ve interviewed who appeared in the highly successful streamed series The Grass Is Always Grindr, with its plot about living with HIV, alongside the likes of Denholm Spurr, Sian Docksey, and Alexis Gregory. Taofique costarred as a shy, closeted gay boxer and his portrayal, I have to say, is moving and realistic.
Moving away from acting, he had been working for Impulse – a global gay men’s project to improve sexual wellbeing – and his role as events director led him to mount events concerning HIV in the black community, and so he was asked to be in The Grass Is Always Grindr.
The series is currently on a number of platforms. Taofique started to think about moving his career away from musical theatre after a successful run in Stiles & Drewe’s The Three Little Pigs at Sydney Opera House and a production of the musical Heaven on Earth, which went into liquidation after six weeks. And so he turned to his passion for fitness.
His company Folarin Fitness works in studios across London and he’s also a regular trainer at Barry’s Bootcamp – oh, and he’s studying for a Masters in Psychology at Brunel. “If I’m not being creative, I get restless – my life balance is now better and more flexible.” He’s also more interested in film acting nowadays, with a marvellous role opposite Ben Aldridge in Thrive, where he again plays a gay character with HIV. Lockdown led to a role in Alexis Gregory’s verbatim production Safe – reviewed in Scene – and he’s also been helping people online struggling in lockdown with their fitness. “It’s given me time to focus on film writing and selfreflection,” and it’s paid off as he was named Men’s Health Best Coach of 2020.
He’s working on a workshop for a show 1 in 2, which deals with issues around HIV and the gay community. Asked to name an ambition he’s very clear and direct: “I want to play the lead role on BBC or Channel 4 as a recurring character – and make a big feature film.” He’s currently writing on wellness for Gay London Life. Asked to give advice to a young self, he told me: “Trust your instincts, embrace yourself and don’t rush. I don’t regret anything in my career”.
