• The actor said he joined the University of Nairobi to pursue law but dropped out
Image: courtesy
'Uradi' actor Mwaura Bilal says he quit his law career to pursue acting.
Speaking in a recent interview with Buzz Central, the father of four said having studied at Alliance High School, he was discouraged to pursue drama and literature in the university.
Bilal is famous for '40 Sticks' and, the latest, 'Uradi' movie on Netflix.
He features as 'Komu' on 'Uradi' as the lead character.
"It was a challenge selecting courses for university," he said.
"I wanted to choose drama and study at Moi University or literature and go to University of Nairobi, but my career teacher told me coming from Alliance, they couldn't do such courses. 'You are expected to do law, medicine, architecture.' I was like, my heart is in the performing arts."
The actor said he joined the University of Nairobi to pursue law but dropped out.
"I had rehearsals for a play I was doing and so I could miss out some exams and I thought, 'Why am I multitasking?' So I quit law school. I asked my dad to stop paying school fees. I told him I wanted to do acting."
He said he later joined another university to study theatre arts and film technology.
"I didn't complete. I left after two years. I am a serial dropout. It was a new course and so equipment and lecturers were a challenge, and I would sit there and think, why am I here?"
He thanked Derric Amunga for holding his hand in the acting industry.
"God kept bringing the right people my way at the right time," he said.
Bilal is featured in 'Uradi', a movie that features other Kenyan stars, such as Shiks Kapienga, Manasseh Nyagah and Peter Kawa.
'Uradi' officially premiered at the Galleria’s drive-in cinema on 25 September 25, 2020.
On December 24, 2021, it premiered on Netflix. It is a feature-length film revolving around a young man who comes from a local village in Nyahururu to Nairobi for higher education.
Drama soon begins to unfold as peer pressure pushes the desire for the high life in him. To make ends meet, he is forced into petty crime.
This is without knowing that the allure of quick money is slowly landing him into the dangerous territories of radicalisation and terrorism.