Talent, Emmanuel Mugo says, has never been the hardest part of acting.
Rejection is.
Before working on the second season of The Agency, the American spy thriller television series featuring Michael Fassbender and Richard Gere, Mugo spent years navigating failed auditions, financial uncertainty and long stretches without work.
Those setbacks, he says, became the foundation of a career that has taken him from a Tahidi High extra to one of Kenya’s most experienced stunt performers on international productions.
“There has been a lot of learning, a lot of connecting with fellow artistes and learning from them, but there has also been rejection. You can be very good and still not get the role.”
For many aspiring actors, rejection is interpreted as failure. For Mugo, it eventually became part of the job description.
“That experience years has helped me build resilience and self-acceptance. Even if you’ve been rejected, you have to keep moving.”
Unlike traditional professions where progression follows a predictable ladder, acting often means long periods of waiting punctuated by short bursts of intense activity. There are months when projects flow and months when phones simply stop ringing.
“That’s why diversification is key. Having a side hustle is important in this industry.”
While many know him as an actor, Mugo has steadily expanded his skill set over the years, becoming a stunt performer, stunt coordinator and assistant director. Today, he co-runs a company known as Stunt It alongside fellow stunt performer Mickey Stunts.
His entry into stunt work came more than a decade ago through veteran Kenyan stunt coordinator Charles Kembero.
“He got me into the first season of Sense8, trained me on the basics and we kicked off from there. Without Kembero, honestly, The Agency would not exist for me. Sense8 was my first stunt gig ever.”
Mugo’s fascination with acting began in childhood while watching the 1990s action series Renegade starring Lorenzo Lamas.
“I really wanted to do what he was doing,” he recalls.
His TV opportunity came in 2012 as an extra in the Kenyan teen drama, Tahidi High. It would take another 13 years before he found himself working on The Agency.
From there came commercials, supporting roles and more auditions.
“Every opportunity and every place you go, you make sure you leave a lasting impression because you’re only as good as your last gig.”
The transition into stunt coordination happened almost by accident.
After working on productions including Mission to Rescue and the Maisha Magic drama Kina, Mugo began taking on more responsibility for action sequences and eventually coordinated one of the show’s major stunt scenes involving weapons and a wedding shootout.
By the time The Agency came calling, Mugo was a multi-skilled creative capable of contributing in several departments. He joined the production through the stunt team rather than a traditional audition process.
Produced by Hollywood star George Clooney’s Smokehouse Pictures for Paramount+, The Agency is among the highest-profile international productions to film in Kenya in recent years. The espionage thriller became Showtime’s most-streamed new series ever following its launch, drawing 5.1 million viewers globally during its opening weekend.