Seyi Ayorinde

Oluseyi Ayodele Emmanuel Ayorinde was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, to Janet Mojisola Ayorinde, data analyst for the United States Post Office, and Olufemi Adewale Ayorinde, PhD, MBA, who worked at both Exxon Mobil and the Department of Defense. He is of Nigerian decent. Ayorinde moved to Virginia at age 6, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. He went on to Davidson College, where he played college football and majored in Physics. He did a one year teaching fellowship at Charlotte Country Day School, before heading the University of Virginia, where he earned his PhD in Electrical Engineering. Ayorinde always enjoyed acting. His first role was a tiny one in a high school rendition of West Side Story, but he fell in love with being on stage. In college, he took Acting 1 from Prof. Ann Marie Costa, and participated in One Act Plays. During graduate school, he went to Boston with his academic advisor, Dr. Ben Calhoun, and pursued acting more fully, at the suggestion of his friend Clint Smith, an activist and poet, who told him "You talk about how much you like acting, why don't you do it?!" Ayorinde's biggest acting venture was his participation in the play "Bouncers" directed by Bill Doncaster of Stickball Productions. The play was well received and received positive reviews from Edge Boston, the Boston Herald, New England Theatre Geek, which touted the cast of the play as "the finest overall cast I've seen in Boston all year" and raves about Ayorinde, saying that, as a "a relative newcomer to acting, [Ayorinde] is so watchable that you feel he could make reading the Congressional Record interesting." There were also reviews from ZP Theatre Reviews and the Boston Art Review, where Ayorinde is said to have "charisma to spare." Ayorinde's lone film credit is from Sink, an Indie film that was entered into the Cannes Film Festival. Ayorinde is now living in Los Angeles, working as an electrical engineering researcher, and pursuing acting once again.