Kevin Samuel: Jack of all trades

BUZZ: Samuel is actually a stock broker when he is not on set

I work for Cent Savuy Investments, the biggest agent of CFC Stanbic Financial Services. Cent Savuy Investments is a financial advisory group that helps investors know how the counters of the Nairobi Stock Exchange have performed.

The firm manages a portfolio of Sh1.2 billion and has branches in Mombasa, Eldoret and Nairobi. Stockbrokers find out the risk appetite of their clients and advise appropriately.

Samuel heads the investor relations in the firm

I am the channel of communication between the financial markets and the investors. My work involves looking at financial reports and getting a consensus analysis on it. I am currently studying Chartered Financial Analysis at the CFA Institute that is based in Virginia in the US via correspondence.

My analysis focus on energy, technology and financials which are the benchmarks for growth of other sectors of the economy as far as I am concerned. I believe that finance is not a reserve of a handful of people. The information ought to be liberalised so as to make it easy to understand. It’s not just about facts and figures.

He studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston

I focused on Business Management as a degree in 2002, took a few years break and went back to finish in 2008. I diversified to marketing and statistics. I taught music at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa where I pursued my secondary education.

I am also a consultant for the Business and Technology Education Council (B.T.E.C), a British education body where I work with students at Brookhouse.

Acting was not part of his plans

It actually happened by fluke. I was at a cocktail party where someone told me that Changes Season one was auditioning. I just decided to audition and got a role as Kuta Sempele, a legal assistant to Alfred Gitau, a prominent lawyer.

Kuta spied on his boss Alfred for William Hector, the boss to Mr Gitau. I liked playing a role where I actually fooled a very smart lawyer.

He plays the role of Richard Mali on the hit TV series Mali that is aired on NTV

In the show, I believe that I must fit into my father’s shoes. The character has an identity crisis since he is unaware of the line between him and his father especially when his father dies. Richard slowly but surely takes after his father.

Mali contacted me

I landed in Mali after the producers saw the work I had done on Changes and liked my performance. I came to Nairobi from Mombasa where I grew up after I got the role for Mali.

He has composed and performed songs for presidents Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki together with His Highness the Aga Khan.

I wrote the song “Light in the dark” and sang it before President Moi in 1998 when I was a pupil at the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa. In 2003, I sang “This time is mine” before President Kibaki in Mombasa.

I also performed for Alicia Keys when she visited Kenya with the Keep the Child Alive organisation that was founded to help children living with AIDS. This was at a luncheon that she attended and she advised me to delegate responsibilities so as not to spread myself too thin. I also sung “Believer” as the Kenyan national Olympic flag was handed over to Jason Dunford, the captain of the Kenyan Olympic team.

The actor was a judge at the Tusker Project Fame auditions.

I was known as “Judge Kevin” who was branded as the sadistic judge who said no to every other applicant during the auditions. The nos had to out number the Yes’s since the judges were only allowed to select five out of the 2000 applicants.

Kevin has also worked on a sanitary towels documentary.

The documentary focuses on the distribution of sanitary towels to millions of girls around the country who cannot afford them. It is based on a project between the African Cotton Industries and the Ministry of Education. I would like to engineer an exchange programme among the girls to give them exposure and know the country better.

He draws inspiration from Meredith of the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group.

She is the one who first predicted the financial crisis that hit the United States. Meredith Whitney Advisory is based in New York. She has a degree in history and got into the world of finance out of passion and interest.

In 2007, Forbes.com’s “The Best Analysts: Stock Pickers” listed Whitney as the second best stock picker in the capital-market industry and the New York Post named her one of the fifty most powerful women in New York city.

He is single
I am very single and warmly receive those who give me their attention.