Kwesi Boakye began acting before he began talking, landing his first gig before his first birthday. Since then, Kwesi has flourished in his young career, working on TV, film and even doing voice-overs. He has appeared on television shows such as “Strong Medicine,” “Boston Legal,” and “The Shield” and films such as Tyler Perry’s hit “I Can Do Bad All By Myself.” Currently, Kwesi is dividing his very busy schedule between school, his Cartoon Network show, “The Amazing World of Gumball” , and his  new movie “Unconditional.”  Kwesi sat down with Blackcelebkids.com[BCK] to talk about his new film, friendly sibling rivalry, his influences, and much more. Check out the BCK exclusive interview below:

BCK: We always like to make sure we have ages correct. How old are you?

Kwesi: I’m 13

BCK: Keeping up with school and acting must make for a busy day. Are you home schooled or do you go to public school?

Kwesi: I go to a public school because my mom wants me to still have a social life and hang out with regular people and my friends I hang out with. She does a really good job of balancing out my acting and me being in school and still getting my schoolwork done. So, I’m still in a public school and I’m happy about that.

BCK: I know you booked your first job at 10 months, but when did you know that you wanted to become an actor?

Kwesi: I don’t think I know the exact date. I think it was all a build up. Of course as I got to the age when I actually knew what I was doing. I think it was a build up of experience after experience. Every time I did it, I found myself just having a great time.  I’d say, “Man, I like doing this. This is actually something I want to do.  So, it was a build up of different jobs I did. The fun experiences I had made me really want to do it and this is something that I really want to do for a long time.

BCK: Your brothers are actors as well, correct? Did you all influence each other to enter the industry or did one start and the rest follow?

Kwesi: I think we actually started at the same time.  When one of us gets a job, we’ll be happy for each other and say like, ‘Good job. Keep doing what you’re doing.’   That’ll inspire us to work harder and get a job. It’s all really good for us. It’s all friendly competition in the house. If one gets a job then we’re going to work harder to get the next job. We’ll definitely help each other out.

BCK: Are you and your brothers competitive within your careers?

Kwesi: Well, not me because I’m too young to go out for the same things they do but the 2 of them have a friendly competition. They’ll say, ‘You got this one, so I’m gonna get the next one.’  It’s so funny watching them though.

BCK: Besides acting, what would you like to do after you finish school?

Kwesi: I think I’d like to get into writing scripts and directing later on. When I’m on set I look at what the directors do and to me that’s really cool what they’re doing with all the camera angles. Portraying the whole movie in their mind is pretty cool. I might plan on going to take some film classes later on and try to do that.

BCK: Is there anyone in the industry that you’d like to work with?

Kwesi: Denzel Washington. He’s a great actor. I’d really like to work with him and actually see him live in action. That would be really cool for me so I hope to work with him one day.

BCK: Who would be your top acting influences?

Kwesi: Denzel Washington, of course and Will Smith.

BCK: Who in your life would you say influences you the most?

Kwesi: My family. They’ve been here for me the whole time throughout my career and without them none of this would be able to happen. Of course God! So, they’re my biggest influences. I do it for myself and I do it for them also.

BCK: You have a very busy career! When you have time, what else do you like to do?

Kwesi: I like to hang out with my friends. Go to the movies or just hang out with them and play PlayStation and video games and stuff like that.

BCK: Can you tell me about the new movie “Unconditional” and your character in the film?

Kwesi: The movie’s about a lady who had a tragedy happen in her life and that leads to her reconciling with her old friend and as they’re catching up she starts to notice a man mentoring to kids in the community that have no parent figures in their life. That really touches her. One of the kids he’s parenting is my character, Macon. My character wants to be seen as sort of a tough guy to all of his peers, but on the inside he’s really just crying out for love. He has a little sister that he’s basically raising by himself. I think that he’s really looking for someone to be the father figure in his life and take off the role of raising his sister so he can be a regular kid for once.

BCK: How was working with the cast of the film?

Kwesi: It was cool. I got to work with Michael Ealy and Lynn Collins. They’re both great actors. I just had a great time working with them. They’re both really nice and really cool. Of course I’m going to pick up some cool things from them like, be prepared for the next scene and get into the mood of the scene, whatever it is. We had an emotional scene on set and Michael listened to his music. I don’t know what he was listening to, but it seemed like he was really into it and it got him into the mood. I think we pulled that scene off really good. It was really cool.

BCK: What did you like most about working on the film?

Kwesi: I actually liked working in Nashville. That was my first time there so that was really cool for me. Everybody there’s so nice and it’s so beautiful out there. There’s so much land and you see horses and cows everywhere. It’s really cool.

BCK: You’ve worked on more serious films in the past. How was this role different than “I Can Do Bad All By Myself?”

Kwesi: They have some things in common. They’re basically both looking for a stable parent figure in their life but I think this one’s more powerful to me, this character in particular because he’s on a mission to find a father figure in his life and at the same time he trying to be a regular kid and have some fun and do the right things and do good in school. He also has to raise his sister. He as a lot of conflicts but he’s really a strong willed person so that’s something different for me and I think that’s different from the role I did in Tyler Perry’s movie.

BCK: Are you working on any new projects?

Kwesi: I’m on a Cartoon Network show called “The Amazing World of Gumball.” I play Darwin Watterson. It comes on every Tuesday so you can check out that on Cartoon Network. I have a movie in production, but we haven’t started filming yet. That’s something you might see in the future.

BCK: Where can our readers find you? Twitter? Facebook? Instagram?

Kwesi: I’m on Facebook: kwesiboakye and that’s the same for Twitter. My Instagram is kwesi_boakye

BCK: Is there anything else that you’d like to tell our readers?

Kwesi: Stay true to who you are and stay confident in yourself. Just believe in yourself, like God is. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do what you want to do because if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. Stay confident and believe in yourself.

Kwesi may be the youngest of his acting brothers, Kwame Boateng, 20, and Kofi Siriboe, 18 are his older siblings, but he isn’t letting his age stop him from moving full speed into his career.

Kwesi’s new film “Unconditional” hits theaters September 21.

Photos: Adrian J Photography