We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Fizz Oladiran a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Fizz, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

From a young age, I’ve always known for the most part what I enjoyed doing. That was acting. Though growing up as in immigrant, you’re taught that careers

in the arts are unrealistic and that your best bet is to focus on school and eventually get a regular job.

That didn’t change for me until the end of high school when I finally saw a clear way of reaching that dream I had as a kid. Seeing people that grew up in similar conditions and went to the same public schools like myself, making it, finally lit that fire in me to strive for what I’ve always wanted.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an Actor and Choreographer from Toronto, Ontario. I have always loved acting and did many plays growing up as a kid. However I never took the craft seriously due to my belief that making it in the acting world would be nearly impossible.

At the end of my high school journey, I was convinced to join a Hip Hop dance team that I wasn’t particularly interested in but in doing so, I was connected to the dance community in the city. One year later, I started my own dance team called ‘Reverb’ and decided to take on dance with full force.

Though we didn’t have any traditional training, we would enter competitions and lose. After every loss we would get good feedback telling us that we have potential but are lacking in certain areas. Our team would build on those areas we lacked one by one until we reached a point where we needed to start learning from professionals in the community.

Taking the classes in the city opened my eyes to the bigger dance industry and what was possible and attainable as long as you work harder and smarter than anyone else. I built connections with well known teachers, trained hard, went to many dance auditions and Managed to perform with cirque du soleil for he pan am games opening ceremony as one of my first big jobs. This job gave me connections that allowed me to work on another project with Cirque du Soleil for the NBA All-Star Games.

I followed this path as a dancer working different jobs and would choreograph for up and coming Toronto artists as well as do performances with my dance team.

Over my 14 year dance journey, I have worked on projects with Director X, Tanisha Scott, Disney, CBC, The Next Step, Billie Eilish, Toronto Raptors, and more.

My dance journey slowly transitioned into my Acting journey after I had the opportunity to dance on the Disney movies; Sneakerella and Z.O.M.B.I.E.S. 3

I gained a wonderful acting agent, and took classes to hone my craft to prepare me for future roles and auditions!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I believe this responsibility falls slightly more on the Artists and Creatives than society. We as artists often times value our craft too low, and in turn so will everyone else. The key is to show that there is value in our work and not be scared to charge the prices we deserve.

Too many try to undercut one another and that in-turn devalues the craft. We need to stick together and create a framework that people respect, the same way sports leagues managed to do so.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think one of the biggest things is that often times, creatives can look lazy. We don’t want to work 9 to 5 jobs and we can seem entitled.

However that is far from the truth. I believe anyone truly pursing this path doesn’t get to take time off. You are always working and always doing what you can to make sure you can simply survive. Sure you might get a big break on a Hollywood Tv show, but when the show stops airing, you are left without a job, without any employment insurance and have to figure out what your next steps are.

It isn’t easy choosing this life and I believe you have to really love it to do it otherwise you will burn out during the journey.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: fizzlvd