Hakeem Ke Kazim has come a long way from being the man whose biggest claim to fame was being loud Larry the Fresca soft drink man in a purple suit.
But ironically it was this off-beat character that brought him to the attention of talent scouts in South Africa and made him a force to be reckoned with on the country's small and big screens.
On the day I met him, Kazim was in Durban for the premiere of two movies, Sunflower and Coming To South Africa, both of which he starred in and one he co-produced, and both of which were being screened as part of the Durban International Film Festival.
I arrive at his beachfront hotel and it's a manic scramble to find a quiet place to have a 15-minute chat before he's whisked away again to make appearances at cocktail functions and the screenings - all part and parcel of being an actor whose star is on the rise, I imagine.
And once we get started, it's easy to see why Kazim has become as successful at his career as he has. He speaks with passion and heart about the industry in which he has chosen to lay roots.
"I love the big screen," he enthuses.
"I don't know exactly what it is, but I love the intensity of the work. I love those moments of tension just before the cameras roll. But the work really begins for me as soon as I'm given the script. That's when I start thinking about the character and fleshing him out and making sure I'm pretty much prepared when I get on set."
Kazim first came to South Africa to attend a friend's wedding. Up until then he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Academy in London doing Shakespeare in its purest form. His friend here asked him to bring along his CV - "just in case" - and the rest, as they say, is history.
"I was doing only theatre in London before I came to South Africa," says Kazim, who was born in Nigeria to diplomat parents and grew up in England.
"After the Royal Shakespeare Academy I joined the Royal National Theatre and most of my early work was just Shakespeare. When I came to South Africa and handed my CV out I started getting a lot of TV work which was great but very different to what I had been doing up until then."
After getting his foot in the door in the local film and television industry, Kazim made sure he stayed in, taking whatever roles he was offered. And for him, his drive to entrench himself in the industry as well as a conscious decision to work hard and not just wait for things to fall into his lap seems to have paid off.
In the last year alone he has done five mainstream movies with big-name Hollywood stars like Patrick Swayze and Don Cheadle.
"It has been great to act opposite a lot more international stars who are coming out here," he says.
"The South African film industry is changing and they are doing a lot less of those B movies that they used to, so the last year working with the likes of Swayze and Cheadle was great and even better was that I had all my scenes with them as well and that bodes well for us here - the fact that we can hold our own with these overseas personalities."
Kazim says that working with Swayze on King Solomon's Mines was an indelible experience. He says he admires his professionalism and work ethic and the fact that who he is takes second place to what he does.
"Swayze is so focused as an actor," he says reflecting on the Dirty Dancing star.
"And that's what I love about these American stars. They may not be the greatest actors in the world but when you see them working they are so focused and very, very professional and I really enjoyed that."
Kazim also dispels what he calls the myth of American stars being complete prima donnas and those who want to be constantly shot in a vacuum. He does, however, point out that he's sure it happens, but in his experience, especially with Swayze and Cheadle, the stories are largely exaggerated.
His latest movie, Coming To South Africa, holds pride of place for Kazim, as it's the first time he's also co-produced anything. Coming To South Africa tells the story of two young Nigerian men who leave their country and head for South Africa in search of a better life. They arrive in Durban and, unable to find work, get involved in the drug trade.
"But aren't you just perpetuating the stereotype that all Nigerians are drug dealers?" I ask.
"Quite the contrary," Kazim replies, "I'm trying to dispel it."
"The fact is the drug route between Nigeria and South Africa is quite big and what we are trying to do is highlight very real problems."
Kazim says another reason he has enjoyed making Coming To South Africa is the fact that the entire production was shot in the Nollywood style. Nollywood, which is the Nigerian film industry, is the third largest of its kind in the world and one that is growing rapidly.
It's generally characterised by long shoot days over a short period - in most cases 10 days - and is not always shot on film. It's all about churning out the product in as short a time frame as possible, which Kazim admits can sometimes involve a trade-off with quality.
He's adamant, however, that Coming To South Africa, while shot over 10 days, was shot entirely on location in Durban and retains the standard and quality associated with mainstream movies.
"For me, co-producing the movie was fantastic because I got to see a side of the business that I don't normally do," he said.
"What I did was set up the people who were going to line-produce the movie and basically put together the practical A, B, Cs of the production and make sure things ran smoothly.
But it was a lot of sideline stuff. For me the most important aspect was my performance and again my focus was very much there."
Now that he has conquered the stage, the small screen, the big screen and producing, Kazim hopes that directing will be the next challenge he takes on. But, he says, he can't conceive of just being handed a script and made to direct it.
He hopes to write the screenplay himself. That way he gets to control the production and steer it in the direction of his own vision for it. And that, he's adamant, is what makes all the difference.