Sehmbi
Acting · Modelling · ProductionLondon
Sehmbi
I'm an actor, TV presenter, filmmaker and model based in London. I came into each of them differently, but they all started with wanting to be in front of a camera.
My first time in front of one was at eight years old. I started a channel young enough that I was learning how to frame a shot before I had much else figured out. I filmed and cut it alone in a bedroom because there was nobody else to do it. None of it was a plan. I just wanted to be in the thing rather than watching it.
“Acting lets me bring a character to life off a page, someone completely fictional, and let people find something to relate to, or take inspiration from, or just know they aren't alone in it. Even in darker characters, we can all recognise some of their attributes. Choosing to accept that is another thing.”
A gaming channel taught me pacing before anyone taught me acting. A film and television degree and crew work on professional sets filled in what that had missed.
It also means I understand a little of what is happening on the other side of the camera. On a shoot I can see where the frame ends. On set I know what the crew is trying to solve. In an edit I know which take is going to cut.
The finance and markets writing looks like the odd one out. It isn't. I learned markets because I wanted to write about them, and writing about them gave me something worth talking about on camera.
Acting is the one I want most. I'm after screen work and people to make things with, and I'm happy to start small to get there.
I played the lead, Mr. Black, in Lunch Hour, directed by Daniel Connell for Novavision Studios. It screened at Raindance's 48 Hour Film Challenge at VUE Piccadilly.
I started at LAMDA in 2018 and have kept training alongside everything else. I took the Actors Studio diploma at Pinewood twice, on purpose, because I wanted more time working on camera and more on tape.
Wanting to be in front of a camera came first and hasn't changed. What keeps me doing it is the moment something lands, when a character is nothing like the person watching and they still recognise something of themselves in them.
I'm most interested in scenes where two people have something at stake. I like the tension in that, whether it ends up dramatic, uncomfortable or funny.
I take direction, I listen, and I work better with someone to play against than alone.
I'm looking for an agent. If you're casting something you think I'd fit, I can get a self-tape back within a day.
Spotlight performerI'm early in modelling and not signed with an agency yet. What exists so far is an editorial portfolio shot across London, mostly on the street and in natural light, in colour and black and white.
I'd rather the pictures feel young and current than look like catalogue poses. Coming from film helps because I'm already thinking about the frame, the light and what the photographer is trying to get from the shot.
Natural posing was harder than I expected. What helped was treating each set-up the way I treat a take and taking direction the same way.
I'm looking for representation. If you're shooting something and think I'd suit it, get in touch.
The largest set I've worked on was Jack Ryan for Amazon Prime Video, where I worked as a location marshal. Since then I've worked on independent shorts across locations, camera and directing.
I wanted to understand how the whole thing gets made, not just what happens in front of the camera.
On set that has meant call sheets, unit moves, camera assisting and keeping cast and crew where they need to be. In post it means cutting, and cutting is where I learned pacing. Nobody sits through a badly paced video out of politeness.
Before any of that, I spent three years making my own YouTube channel. I wrote, filmed, presented and edited it myself. That meant learning how to talk to a camera with nobody behind it, how to hold attention, and how quickly you lose people when something isn't working.
If you're crewing a short and need another pair of hands, I'm around.
I've written research and commentary on business and financial markets for The Currency Times for three and a half years.
I got into finance deliberately because I wanted a subject I could properly understand rather than just present. That led to Financial Markets at Yale in 2021, Accounting & Capital Markets at Cambridge in 2023, and two years of Finance & Investment Banking at Greenwich.
My beat is business, financial markets and global economics, with a second line in trading strategy and trading psychology.
I'm more interested in what is driving a market than repeating the headline after it moves. The writing is about understanding the mechanics well enough to explain them simply.
Broadcast is where I want to take that next. If you need someone who can understand markets and explain them clearly on camera, that's the work I'm looking for.
