Nathaniel Kweku Interview | Ghanaian-American Actor + Filmmaker

nathaniel kweku ghanaian american


• “The fact that his story still hadn’t been told, that consciousness sat heavy on my heart. I made it my mission to enlighten the world more about Africa.” 

- Nathaniel on his visit to Ghana at 17-years-old and learning about Dr. Kwame Nkrumah

Ghana – the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve independence from European colonization – and the ancestral home of Nathaniel Kweku.

His mother was born in Cape Coast, and father in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Strangers prior to leaving the country in their early-mid 20s, they both set out for life abroad in search of new opportunities and settled in multiple countries across Europe prior to immigrating to the U.S.

Their lives converged in Houston, where they met and later moved to Bakersfield, California. Two hours north of Los Angeles, the city is home to monster trucks and cowboy boots, and an “Unlikely place for Africans, but that’s where they had my older brother and I…There were Latinos and Asians, but there weren’t a lot of Africans.”

Life at home was pure Ghanaian. “My mom would make a big pot of rice and stew that would last the whole week. You would eat nothing else but rice and stew. Home was no American melting pot. I basically grew up in Ghana. [laughter]”

At 9, Nathaniel’s parents got divorced, and his father, the more liberal member, moved to the East Coast. “People knew my mom was very tough. She had a reputation at my school. Everybody knew her.”

Between kindergarten and 7th grade in private school, Nathaniel was 1 of about 4 black kids, but the idea of race only occurred when the topic of slavery came up. “Aside from that, I never really felt different. It was in public junior high when it was: the black people hung out with black people. It was the first time I experienced segregation in that sense...”

Countering his ‘outside world,’ Nathaniel’s mom understood the importance of planting cultural roots in her children. So they became active members of the small African community in Bakersfield, which had an African Association full of Ghanaians and a hefty sum of Nigerians.

His mom’s hope of instilling this foundation was almost lost and caused internal friction for Nathaniel and his cultural identity in high school. “…Whatever pride I had at that age, it was diminished. It was almost seen as a negative thing [to be African], so I definitely tried to assimilate as much as possible into African-American culture.”

nathaniel kweku ghanaian american
Nathaniel as Nicholas in "Growing Up Immigrant"

From never wanting to wear Ghanaian clothes, unless mandated by his mother for African parties/events, to getting roasted by his friends when they would visit his house and point out unfamiliar smells seeping out from the kitchen, Nathaniel was embarrassed about his culture.

Typical of an immigrant home, Nathaniel was conditioned to think that there was nothing else other than becoming an engineer, doctor or lawyer. He was very active in extra-curricular activities and also job shadowed in the ER and interned in an ICU recovery room during ‘medical academy’ in high school. “So when I was looking for colleges, I was looking to double major in business and to pick up a second major in public health. But when I was 16, I actually started taking acting classes.”

Enters the more lenient, super chill parent: “My dad was really supportive and gave me the first amount of money that I needed to take classes.” Preceding this, Nathaniel had a natural ability to write, and did a lot of spoken word and poetry growing up. But above all else, he credits watching TV shows relentlessly for the spark that allowed him to think escaping his predetermined career was even possible.

By 17, the summer before enrolling at the University of California (UC) Riverside, Nathaniel traveled to New York for a modeling and acting convention. Out of 300 people in his category, he placed 2nd runner up. At that moment, “I had decided that I was going to become an actor.”

That same summer, Nathaniel and his family visited Ghana. Since the age of one and a half, his mom took them home every 2 to 3 years. But at 17, this would be one where Nathaniel gained a better sense of the world’s twisted storytelling about Africa being one-dimensional.

• “It was so cool to meet different Africans from Nigeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana.” 

- Nathaniel on experiencing African pride for the first time thanks to the African Student Union at UC Riverside

“We went to the Kwame Nkrumah* Mausoleum in Ghana and I had never been there before…I learned more about him, our first president of democratic Ghana. The fact that his story still hadn’t been told, that consciousness sat heavy on my heart. I made it my mission to enlighten the world more about Africa.”

When he returned to Cali and started college, “I declared business and I told myself and my mom that I’d double in public health.” But he was unable to suppress his newfound life goal that was cemented in Ghana, so Nathaniel got an agent and commuted to Los Angeles a great deal, taking on acting opportunities, auditions and classes.

growing up immigrant
Some cast members of “Growing Up Immigrant” (L to R): Kojo, Nicholas and Aunty Mama

Aside from academics and L.A., UC Riverside is where Nathaniel got involved with the African Student Union. “It was so cool to meet different Africans from Nigeria, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana.” For the first time, he experienced a sense of authentic, African pride. Through this reclamation and knowing exactly the tribes that his parents came from, he also began to strictly identify as Ghanaian-American.

Nathaniel was awakened on several fronts. His cultural identity was set, and so was his aspiration for acting. He transferred from UC Riverside to the University of Southern California (USC) – to be in the heart of entertainment, complimented with courses from his new dual major in business and cinema.

In 2011, a year before graduating, Nathaniel took advantage of a 7-month study abroad opportunity. For a month and a half, he studied Spanish in Spain, and then traveled around Europe to learn new cultures. Ghana was the ultimate treat and destination for the last 4 months.

Nathaniel’s intentions for going back to Ghana was derived from his last visit at 17. Remembering how African stories were one-dimensional, he traveled back to conduct film research. “I wanted to go to Ghana and see what the film industry was like and to see if there were moves made by filmmakers to tell holistic stories.” An added bonus from his visit, was the opportunity to pick-up a bit of his family’s native tongue called Asante Twi.

Upon his return and after graduating with a bachelor’s in business and cinema in 2012, Nathaniel had to keep the momentum going. “I really wanted to work in film and entertainment as it related to Africa. So through a mentor, I got connected to The Africa Channel in North Hollywood.” Even if it meant less pay, Nathaniel’s goal was to become a part of telling stories that were more encompassing of Africa, not just stories of poverty, corruption and greed. A summer internship turned into a job offer in which he paved his own path in social media and digital strategy. Five years in, he paid his dues and recently left to focus on personal projects, acting gigs and writing.

Nathaniel’s TV and film credits date back 2010, and his most recent works include appearances in “Startup” (on Sony’s streaming platform, Crackle), “Pure Genius” (on CBS), “Lopez” (on TV Land), “Rosewood” (on FOX), “Shades of Mainland” (which won Best Screenplay at the Hollywood Black Film Festival in February), and his directing debut with “Growing Up Immigrant.”

Growing Up Immigrant

Early 2016, Nathaniel starting creating sketches that centered on African parents and things that irked him while growing up. Seeing that there was nothing similar to his concept on the internet, he quickly realized its potential to become a web-series and conversation about ‘growing up immigrant’ in America.

As he wrote, he intentionally incorporated other ethnicities. “I think the African experience is so familiar to us; it’s built in comedy. [laughter] But I think it’s universal in terms of being first-gen immigrant. There are commonalities between the experiences that we all share. I think I would be doing a disservice to other immigrant groups by having it strictly in the African context, so I wanted to open it up and show how we all relate living in America. Why not?”

1 season (8 episodes) fully written, Nathaniel is in the process of building awareness and pitching the series to production companies.

His advice to someone who may be struggling with their identity:

Own a globe and ask questions. The world is so big…You don’t have to be limited to what you see in front of you because there are tons of lifestyle patterns. People don’t get it? That’s their problem. That’s their limited perspective. Find yourself based off of your history, your future and vision for yourself.”

His advice to his 16-year-old self:

“Stop wearing du-rags! That was never cool. Why were you wearing du-rags and [sports] headbands? Why would you do that? It was a shame! [laughter]”

• •

*Dr. Nkrumah studied at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and went back to Ghana promoting Pan-Africanism. He pulled his teachings from Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., and W.E.B. Du Bois to lead Ghana to independence from Britain in 1957.

- Images courtesy of Nathaniel Kweku

- To stay up-to-date on Nathaniel's web-series, visit Growing Up Immigrant