Ghafir Akbar

Tonight we had a man who initially started off in the world of engineering, made a brave 180º turn and ended up being the man of theatre that he is now. His name is Ghafir Akbar and he is a part of the new wave of Malaysian actors who are revamping the Malaysian theatre scene one bit at a time.

 

For Ghafir Akbar, acting was a hobby for him during school days. Soon after ending secondary school at Victoria Institution, Ghafir made his professional debut with The Actors Studio Theatre Box Of Delights. It was the production which brought forth Ghafir’s untapped talent for acting to the KL theatre landscape.

 

As young Ghafir was entering his 20’s, he enrolled himself to a local engineering school complete with a scholarship. Throughout the years in engineering, he kept entering for performances and plays till one day, Gharif made the daring jump to do theatre full time. By chance, he met the head of an American university’s theatre department during one of his shows.

 

Having been given a slot in the programme, Ghafir waged through two years of saving money and scholarship searching. He did a valiant job as it all fell into place for him and he went off for six years of studying in the States. Giving him a BA in Theatre Performance and a Masters in Acting. He ended it all with another two years in New York, having a hand in the American theatre life.

 

Ghafir since then has racked up an impressive 28 different shows to his credit, ranging from acting, directing and writing. By 2013, he was named August Man’s Theatre Man Of The Year; Ghafir scored nominations for Best Actor at the Kuala Lumpur Film Critic Awards and Most Promising Actor at the recent the 27th Malaysian Film Festival for his role in the 2014 film, Cuak.

 

For the record, Ghafir scored 17!

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