Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter
"MY FRIEND once said, the richest place is the grave yard, because there are so many dreams there that people didn't pursue because they were fearful," says Kanhai Condison.
Five years ago, Kanhai was bold enough to follow his dreams to model and act; but most of these achievements didn't happen before he quit his job and joined Saint International model agency.
ACTING
"I used to work at LOJ for about four or five years and I was modelling part time, but what I've always wanted to do is to pursue acting ... So I left my job in '99 and went to the States. I went to New York and I wanted to do acting and I got hooked up to an acting agency in 2000," he said.
He says an agency in South Africa then expressed interest in him, so he moved there. "I didn't want to go because it was too far, but I went anyway. I was there from September to December and came back to Jamaica, then went back in 2002."
Kanhai says while there, he did a Castle Lager (beer) campaign in 2001 and it was renewed in 2002-2003. He also did the 24/7 deodorant campaign. "That was a really big one. They had TV commercials, print ads and that sort of thing. It has been running in South Africa from 2003 until now."
He has done work for Jet magazine, Woolworth, Edgar's, Marie Claire among others. But he says he still prefers acting to modelling. "Modelling is just a stepping stone to acting. Even when I went to South Africa, I was still more concentrated on doing commercials than magazines," he said.
It was this passion that finally landed him a role in the South African soap opera, Generations recently. He appeared in an episode as a hot date for one of the main characters. "I just wanted to act. In South Africa, the life was good, but I still found myself having deja-vu. I was doing the same shows, the same jobs. The lifestyle is easy and you can get trapped."
Kanhai says because of that, he is now concentrating on his acting career.
He says if he had not gone to Africa, he wouldn't have been so motivated to pursue his acting. "Africa just reinforced that this is something that I really want. You can get caught up in the lifestyle, being known there and that sort of thing, but after a while you need to explore other places. To do that, you have to be hungry, and it has to be something that you really want, even if others around you are falling apart in the lifestyle there, you still have to keep your dream alive."
