Meet Akeem Mair

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Akeem Mair. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Akeem below.

Akeem, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Most of my life I lacked confidence and had a weak self esteem about myself. In the past I cared a lot about what people thought of me and had a terrible habit of defending myself against the negative criticism I received. My love for being an actor is that I am always thrown into situations that challenged my confidence and self esteem. My entire life changed when I booked a short student film on the Academy awarded movie “Good Will Hunting” from the Los Angeles Film School. The role gifted me my most treasured lesson, I am disappointed with myself for not remembering the professor’s name who turned my world upside down. The professor was teaching the class about film directing and was helping one of his students who picked a scene out of “Good Will Hunting.” We start filming and then he yells, “cut!!!!!!” He points to me and says, “well you gotta take your shirt, pants, and socks off dude. You’re just waking up and getting out of bed.” I had no idea I was doing all of that stuff because the day before we had rehearsal and the student never suggested it so my feet was kind of ashy haha. I lay back next to my co star, Alexandra Gurskaya, who played Skylar and she is Will’s love interest in the movie. As we begin performing the scene again, I was out of my comfort zone and embarrassed. I begin saying my lines nervously and the Professor then yells “STOP!!!!!!!!!!”

He tells Alexandra pleasantly “you’re doing a fine job sweetheart, keep doing what you’re doing! But youuuuu!” As he gestures to me, “come here!” He then points to the monitor and says, “Now I want you to see yourself, is your character suppose to be nervous or confident?” As I watched myself I was stuttering, nervously holding her, shivering because the room was cold. I said, “Will is supposed to be confident.” He then says, “then why are you messing up my scene by playing something you’re not?” I said, “because everybody is looking at me and I didn’t expect to take my clothes off.” He said, “you worried about all of these people looking at you? Forget about all these people in the room, I don’t give a damn about them. Your job is to entertain us and deliver a excellent performance because that’s what we know you can do. You can’t let us ruin this moment for you! And don’t ruin this moment for yourself either! Either you are going to entertain us or be nervous. You can’t do both!” I’ve never looked at anything in my life the same.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Akeem Mair is the entertainment industry’s up-and-coming icon. In his career as an artist, he has appeared in several movie productions including Its on You, 417: Person with a Gun, Gangster City, Jolly Boy Friday, Life of a Villain, Red, Fine Line, Happy Birthday, The Kidnap, etc.

Akeem has signed with two agencies: Commercial Talent Agency (under Sarah Angeli) and Minc Talent (under Mariko Ballentine). With his noteworthy work ethic and passion, he is destined for greater heights. In fact, he has over 5 million views for a single video alone – the time when he appeared for The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which Ellen described as “the best episode she’s ever seen.” Also appearing on Iyanla’s Fix My Life on Oprah’s network, Apex Legends commercial with over 1 Million views on YouTube, Let’s Make A Deal with Wayne Brady, and many more.

Besides this feature with Shoutout LA, Akeem appears in many publications such as Voyage LA, 360 Magazine, Cliche Magazine, Occhi Magazine, KB Popculture, Kivo Daily, Naluda Magazine, Tha Wilson Block Magazine, The Hype Magazine, Dark Magazine, Vents Magazine, We Entertainment News, Star Central Magazine, Natfluence, US Reporter, American Reporter, Time Bulletin, Top 15 Entrepreneurs, LA Wire’s Top 20 IG Accounts to Follow in 2020, and many more.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Looking back I think the three most important qualities or skills is keep a journal with you to track your progress, a strong faith in yourself and in Jesus, and consistency. I’ve always said, “ time is a monster, if you don’t watch it it’s gone!” My journal is the only thing that slows it down just a bit. You don’t realize how much opportunities are around you and how much they expire because of time. Prioritizing is one of your greatest weapons because you could be doing something important right not but it’s just not the best use of your time to be doing that right now. I aim to write down 10 goals to do a day, it’s crazy to me when someone says they don’t have any goals written down. A friend of mines asked me, “why do you carry a journal?” I asked him, “tell me what you did on January 9th 2021?” He said, “why does that matter?” I said, “so you don’t know? I bet I can flipped this page and tell you what I did! You need to know where your time is going!”

Having a strong faith in yourself and in Jesus, I’m a Christian so . You’re going to have family who will try to tear down your dreams and that’s ok. It could be that they’re trying to protect you, or it could mean they are truly hating on you. Whatever the case may be it’s vital you keep your faith and stay on course. Their going to say things like, “ you’ve been at it for years and I don’t see nothing.” I had a family member tell me, “you’re going to end up in the basement of your brother’s home.” Talk about harsh haha. But that’s sometimes the truth, not everyone makes it. But again I think that comes down to faith and your work ethic. Which brings me to consistency. You have to stay consistent! I have the saying, “keep your head down and don’t look up.” When you’re looking up you’re noticing how far you’re away from your dreams and how much you gotta do. If you keep your head down and just grind you’ll get there in no time.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
There’s many books that have a played a significant part in my development. The Richest man in Babylon by George S. Clason taught me about a man who started as a freeman, lost his family and ended up becoming a slave after being captured for being a thief. The wife of his master put in his head, “do you have the soul of a freeman or a slave?” With her perspective he began to change. He stopped sitting with the other slaves and started to believe in himself that he can be free once again. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we forget who we are. We must remember who we are and what we are fighting for and working towards each day. You must also separate yourself and not eat or hangout with people you are not trying to become. Another book that’s brought me so much wisdom is The Holy Bible and it also states, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: But a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” Proverbs 13:20. The people around you gives off influence upon your life that you don’t even realize in the present moment. You have to be careful who you keep in your circle. You hang around successful people you become successful, you hangout with losers and you will find yourself always losing.

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