At the age of 12, Theo Johnson witnessed a drive-by shooting near his home in Handsworth. He had to grab a little girl playing next to him and pull them both to the ground to keep them safe. Sadly, this was not to be the only trauma he would go on to endure. By the time he was 16, Theo had lost four of his friends to knife crime and two friends to gun crime – including his best friend’s brother who he had grown up with. Theo decided he wanted to do something positive for the city – and has been raising awareness of the issue ever since by making films that have become so successful they’ve been picked up by Amazon Prime.
“I saw a drive-by when I was 12 and another shooting when I was 14,” said Theo, now 28, who has two older sisters and two younger brothers. And, in that same year, I saw three different people stabbed right in front of me. Two were stabbed to death and the third was alright. My best friend’s brother died. I was with him the day before. Me and his older brother, we looked after him, he was a nice, good kid, not in a gang, not causing any trouble. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was stabbed in the leg and he bled out and ended up passing away. We’d been friends since primary school.”
Having never really engaged well at school, Theo found his niche in drama classes at high school.
“I found I was really good at drama,” he explained. “Rather than being the one the teacher said not to follow, the drama teacher started saying do what he does. I’d found my calling. There wasn’t anything I could do other than use the skills I had in drama by making a short film to try to make people think twice about carrying a knife. I wanted to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Now I try to get that message to people through film.”
He made a short film about the dangers of carrying a knife called One Knife Affects Many Lives, which reached many people on social media and made him realise this was what he wanted to do going forward.
Becoming a youth ambassador, Theo went on to make another film called It’s Your Fault Now about the impact of drink driving. It went viral and he amassed more than 100,000 followers on Instagram and millions of views on YouTube, which led to his work being picked up by Amazon Prime. This was followed by another film called Just One Drop which he wrote to raise awareness of the horror of acid attacks.
And now he’s about to release a follow-up called Just Two Drops under Opulent Films, which he co-founded with his business partners Carlito Montana, Joella Sawyer, Andrew Keane and Jane Bolton.
It is set in a prison and Theo appears alongside Peter Andre and Katie Price’s son Junior Andre, rapper C Montana and stars from Love Island.
He has also appeared as Callum in Channel 4’s Raised by Wolves by Caitlin Moran, in Netflix’s Intent 2 and in the controversial film Blue Story which was banned from Vue Cinemas following rioting at Star City in Birmingham.
“People don’t always understand how powerful film can be, that’s why I always try to have a positive message,” said Theo, who is now splitting his time between London and Birmingham. “When I put the action in there, it helps to engage people. I always try to include Birmingham actors and talent in my films alongside known London talents.”
He added: “Some people don’t have these chances, they don’t have positive role models, they see no way out. Luckily I have something in me that means I’m able to create my own luck. My mum and dad are proud. They always told me that whatever I wanted to do, they would be happy with it. They’ve both always been there for me and that helps a lot. It’s important to seek good role models.”
Theo says he would like to become the ‘Adam Sandler of Birmingham’: “Sometimes people say I should change my Birmingham accent and I think it’s only because my sketches went viral that opportunities have come to me.
“I’d like to give more opportunities to unknown people and I always like to include Birmingham in my work.”
Source: www.birminghammail.co.uk
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