Araloyin Oshunremi on the end of ‘Top Boy’: “We’re going out with a bang”
This is Araloyin Oshunremi’s breakout moment. The America-born, London-raised actor has spent his entire teenage years filming and promoting Top Boy, the beloved east London crime drama that is returning for its third and final season since Netflix (and superfan-turned-producer Drake) revived it in 2019. But in the new run, Oshunremi’s character Stefan is more of a focal point than ever before.
“Obviously, in the first season, I was a little kid just enjoying it,” Oshunremi says when we meet at Netflix‘s UK headquarters in central London. Stylishly kitted out in designer double-denim, he sits on a fuzzy chair in the small conference room, swaying side-to-side while hanging his arm over the arm rest. “The second season, we just saw Stef being a moody teenager going through puberty, so I didn’t really have to dive into something deep. Final season, my character’s got a way bigger role.”
Stef and brothers Jamie (Micheal Ward) and Aaron (Hope Ikpoku Jnr) were popular new additions when Netflix brought back Top Boy, which had previously aired on Channel 4 for two series in 2011 and 2013. Ward’s character, in particular, had become a real fan favourite before he was shockingly killed by Sully (Kane ‘Kano‘ Robinson) in last season’s epic finale. Now, with Jamie dead and Aaron up in Leeds for uni, Stefan needs to learn how to be a lone wolf.
At first, this also proved to be a culture shock for 19-year-old Oshunremi. “I was always with Micheal and Hope,” he says. “[It was always] all three of us together. You would never see one of us by ourselves. So them not being on set was upsetting.”
Though it was tough, Oshunremi was ready to step up and took his acting this season “very, very, very seriously”. The repetition seems to underscore his commitment. “I need to be in the zone,” he adds. “I realised, ‘Cool, both my [on-screen] brothers are gone. It’s just me by myself.’ So I wasn’t thinking as myself; I was thinking as Stef. Anytime I was on set, as soon as I got on set, I was thinking as Stef.”
“Both Stef’s brothers are gone – it’s just him by himself now”
This season sees Stef experience more complex and conflicting aspects of life than in the past. He has a new love interest, Dris’ daughter Erin (Savanah Graham), but also wants to avenge Jamie’s death, so Oshunremi has really been thrown in the deep end emotionally. He says some of the scenes “took a lot” from him because “anger – being sad and being frustrated” isn’t something he is “used to”.
For a while, the actor also found the juxtaposition between being “depressed” and “sad” as Stef – and enjoying lighter moments with his co-stars off camera – tricky to grasp. Still, he notes wisely that he “won’t always have that family [and] community feeling on set” and recognises that “sometimes [acting is] going to feel like a job.”
Surprisingly given his rapid rise, it’s a job he didn’t always see himself doing. “I wanted to do football [for a living],” Oshunremi says candidly. “Before Top Boy, I’d done acting in school – I studied drama for A-levels and IGCSEs. But I was more of a football-head because my older brother used to play for Arsenal.”
At the same time, Oshunremi grew up watching everything from American blockbusters to his parents’ beloved Nollywood films, and would fantasise about sharing the screen with Hollywood icons like Angelina Jolie, Denzel Washington and Leonardo DiCaprio. However, the two actors who really lit a fire in him were fellow London success stories John Boyega and Daniel Kaluuya.
“One of the first things that I remember watching was [Boyega’s cult 2011 film] Attack The Block,” Oshunremi recalls. “I love that film so much [that] I can tell you every single scene from start to finish. Watching him go from that to Star Wars, I’m like, ‘Rah!’ I was inspired.”
Oshunremi was also inspired by Kaluuya’s varied “catalogue of work” ranging from the seminal 2017 horror film Get Out to the frothy 2011 action comedy Johnny English Reborn. “He’s been in a lot and it’s all been different – I even remember seeing him in JME‘s music video [for ‘Blam’],” Oshunremi says. “I would like my acting career to go in a similar way, where each role I’m progressing and challenging myself more and more.”
“Daniel Kaluuya told me to keep pushing and focus”
Hearteningly, Oshunremi has already received praise and a pep talk from one of his idols. “I remember having a conversation with Daniel Kaluuya at one of the Top Boy [wrap] parties and he was like, ‘You’re doing very well. Keep pushing [and] focus,'” he recalls. “When I get recognition from other actors who have been in the game longer than me, saying I’m doing well and I’m cool, [that makes me certain] I’m going to push [on] because I know I can be great. Moments like that [mean] a lot for me.”
It’s still early days for Oshunremi, but he is already beginning to build his own catalogue of work. He has a supporting role in another huge Netflix hit, Heartstopper, as Otis, a friend of Kit Connor’s lead character Nick. We’ll also see him opposite Strike Back‘s Corey Johnson in the upcoming British thriller film Warhol. But remarkably, Top Boy was his first ever acting gig – one he booked at 13 after he happened to be standing “outside a barbershop” at the right time.
“A street-caster handed me a flyer and said, ‘Would you like to be in Top Boy?'” Oshunremi recalls. Because he had always liked drama and “making people laugh and stuff”, the budding actor knew he had nothing to lose. “I was like, ‘You know what? I’m 13 years old. Football’s not really going my way and I like acting a lot. Let me go for it,'” he says.
Multiple callbacks followed, but when he finally got to the chemistry test with Ward and Ikpoku Jnr, he knew he had it in the bag. “When I walked into the room and I saw who it was, I was like, ‘Yes!’ he recalls. “I saw Hope, who went to my school, [so I was like] ‘I know this guy already!’ And Hope [already] knew Michael, so I was like, ‘This is perfect!'”
Though his instincts were spot on, Oshunremi admits he’s still getting used to the positive feedback he’s received since Top Boy returned in 2019 with a flock of fresh faces. “I never really expected this, to be honest,” he says modestly. “I knew that everybody loved Ashley [Walters, who plays Dushane] and Kane so much, but then, the reception that me, Michael, Hope and all the new characters got… I never expected it.”
However, this doesn’t mean Oshunremi feels nervous about stepping into the spotlight for Top Boy‘s feverishly anticipated final season – far from it. “I’m just here to kill it,” he says purposefully. “Physically, mentally, and emotionally, I put everything into this. I’ve put six years of my life into this. I’m not letting it go to waste. I’m going to go out with a bang.”
“I know the path I want to go on. I have a plan”
At the same time, he is ready to begin the tricky transition from being known as “Stefan from Top Boy” to wider recognition as Araloyin Oshunremi, the actor. In fact, he already knows what kind of role he wants next. “I want to do something periodic, playing a historical figure in the past,” he says. “I just feel like it has to be completely different from Stefan. Certain people don’t just know me as Stefan from Top Boy. They might know me as Araloyin Oshunremi, the actor, but [I want more] people to know me as an established actor.”
And at 19, he already has one eye on the catalogue of work he wants to build. “For me, in general, I just want to make great movies, inspirational movies,” he says. “Whether that’s in Hollywood or Nollywood – wherever – as long as it’s inspirational and it changes lives and the movies last the test of time.”
It’s all part of an overarching plan to “affect people in a positive way” through the stories he tells. “If someone is able to watch one of my movies or series and say, ‘You know what, at that moment, he did that,’ and it helps them in their situation, then I’ve done my job,” he says. Oshunremi is also making a positive impact by working with numerous youth groups and charities. He heads up kids’ acting sessions and wants to continue paying it back. “The world is a messed-up place, but being charitable and helping people just helps slowly heal the world,” he says.
His acting career may have begun with a chance encounter outside a barbershop, but six years in, Oshunremi knows he has found his calling. And whatever happens next, ambition won’t be a problem. “I want to be a pioneer in this generation. Whether it’s acting or fashion or anything, I want to set the pathway for teenagers and generations to come,” he says. “I feel like, these last two years, I’ve really narrowed down what I want to become in life and what type of actor I want to be. I know the path I want to go on. I have a plan.”
‘Top Boy’ returns for its final season on September 7 on Netflix
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