Adam Deacon, Pic: Menhaj Huda
More good news for Hackney as born-and-bred actor and rapper Adam Deacon has been nominated for the Orange Wednesday Rising Star Award, at the BAFTA awards this year.
The announcement comes just a day after Idris Elbra, also from Hackney, won a Golden Globe for his role in British TV series “Luther”.
Deacon’s name began trending on the social media site Twitter as he reached the second round of nominations. Fans showed their support, if not surprise, for Deacon’s nomination. Nicola Beerjeraz from Hackney tweeted: “seeing people from my area like @realadamdeacon doing well n being an inspiration!”
Time Out magazine described Deacon as “the face of youth cinema”. He is up against actors Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Chris O’Dowd and Eddie Redmayne. It is the first time that the nomination list for the Rising Star award is an all-male list.
After his nomination was announced, Deacon said: “I’m still living in my Hackney council estate, so to have a possibility of actually taking a BAFTA back for Hackney and to the estate, that means so much.”
Deacon started acting from a young age after joining the Anna Scher theatre school. Aged 12, he took a Saturday job to raise money for the summer school where Scher herself took notice and encouraged his talent.
At 15 he left home, and a year later dropped out of school, as he was determined to focus on his acting career.
Deacon got his big break when he was cast in Noel Clarke and Menhaj Huda’s film Kidulthood in 2006. He went on to star in more gritty urban films such as the follow-up to Kidulthood, Adulthood and Shank.
In 2011 he wrote, directed, and starred in his own film, Anuvahood. Anuvahood was a comic take on the urban films Deacon had become associated with. The film caused him to fall out with colleague and Kidulathood star Noel Clarke in a very public Twitter feud.
Anuvahood was hated by the critics, but loved by the public, making it to the number one spot in the box office.
The film was last year’s winner of the Favourite Urban Film at the Screen Nation Awards.
Film critic Mark Kermode said on the BBC that Deacon is the “wild card in the pack“.
The BAFTA awards are to be announced on February 12.
