We recently connected with Zimzon Zion and have shared our conversation below.

Zimzon , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Growing up I used to watch a show called GLADIATORERNA ( American Gladiators)

And I always would dream about getting on the show as a contestant and going against the Gladiators.

Well fast forward a few years and I found myself being a Gladiator and my boyhood dream becoming my reality. It meant a lot to me as it spearheaded my acting career and also lets me know that anything you put your mind into will and can become your reality.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Zimzon Zion I grew up in Stockholm Sweden in a suburb called Rågsved. My childhood started like a good Disney movie but at the age of 7 I got hit with something that would change my life forever, Racism when I turned 7 I was called the N-Word for the first time and I didn’t understand why I was disliked I didn’t understand why kids where making fun of my skin complexion. Being a child of immigrants from Congo and Angola my parents couldn’t really help me as they could barely speak the language. So as I was growing up I went through an identity crises where I thought being a boy of a darker skin complexion was the wrong thing to be and being Caucasian was the right thing. However football helped me a lot and made me realize that there’s people from all corners of this world and we all can come together and play this beautiful game in peace and harmony. But unfortunately after a career ending injury I had to figure out what to do and acting was introduced to me. I booked my first gig and I never looked back since.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

For me being a black actor from Sweden is so much bigger than me. I do what I do to show the kids from the suburbs that there’s no limits to your dreams. In fact the bigger the dream the better. I’ve never seen a black Swedish actor as the leading man in a project in Sweden. All I had was American movies because that’s where I saw people that looked like myself that’s where I could relate. Representation is so important I my goal is to use myself as an example.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I was 19 I decided to move to london to becoming a professional football player, I felt Sweden wasn’t giving me the opportunity I was looking for and my ethnic background was some what of obstacle so I thought why not go somewhere where I would be more embraced.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @zimzonofficial
• Facebook: Zimzon Zion
• Twitter: Zimzonofficcial

Image Credits

Don Nikon