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Sylvia J. Osei

ACTRA

Born in Falls Church, Virginia, Sylvia (she/her) had the privilege of living and growing up in 3 countries, which expanded her knowledge and understanding of the different cultures. At the age of 5 Sylvia’s parents moved her to Ghana, which is located in West Africa. Her parents wanted her to learn about her ethnicity and culture from the source. This is where she developed the bug for acting, when she’ll see children on screen portraying a character, she’ll immediately wish it was her in their position. She was however, afraid to let her parents know her love for acting as some of you may know, when you come from an African household, you need to focus of your education and become a doctor, lawyer, an engineer or accountant to say the least. Being an actor was definitely out of the question for her. At the age of 10 she moved back to Virginia with her father, where her desire for acting grew stronger. She’d partake in little plays at her school but would not tell her father about it to avoid the disappointment from him. At the age of 12, she moved once again to Toronto, ON, Canada with her mother, which became her final destination for growing up.

In her late teens, she finally worked up the courage to tell her parents, she wanted to go into acting and make a career out of it. Her mother was supportive as long as it was just a hobby and she pursued a real career like it was mentioned earlier. Sylvia’s father on the other hand just said flat out no, which broke her spirit and made her decide to stop pursuing it all together and pursue something practical. Her parents opinion mattered to her a lot and she could not do anything to disappointment them. Being the stubborn person she could be sometimes, decided that she’d put acting on the side for now but if revisits it again in her early adulthood, then she’d take it seriously and make a career out of it. Well life happens as Sylvia graduated from college with Business Admin Degree and had a baby.

She started to pursue modelling because of people around her and people she didn’t know, would always tell her how beautiful she was and should go into modelling. While doing this, she realized that she wanted to go into acting and her agent also advised her of the same as she thought she had what it took to be a great actor. Her agent then started to send her out for acting auditions and encouraged her to take classes, which she did. Booking her first independent feature film, sealed it for her. She was hooked and knew from that day forward, being a fulltime actor was what she was born to do. Being on set is where she feels most at home. With the exception of her family, acting has and remains her greatest love. And like any remarkable love story, life without acting is quite simply, unfathomable.

Acting has provided Sylvia an outlet to express various parts of the human psyche that real life often requires us to compartmentalize. The ability to connect with people emotionally, to draw them in with her talent is a gift. This gift has taken her career internationally working both in Toronto and New York.

Sylvia has been in TV series, featured film and documentaries such as Pretty Hard Cases, The Boys, Single Ladies, Soul Food (TV Series), Black Sorority Project, God’s Own Country, Hero Dogs, to name a few. Black Panther Women, a play that Sylvia was in received rave reviews from the Midtown International Theatre Festival. Lending from Oprah Winfrey’s infamous words, “You don’t become what you want, you become what you believe” Sylvia is invested in continuing to manifest her dreams. Get familiar with the name and face because Sylvia is here to stay.