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.
Mugo worked as a stunt double, stunt driver during military convoy scenes and also as a militia member.
He believes the opportunity was not the result of one lucky break but years of networking and preparation. More directors and filmmakers want to engage with me now, not just for stunts but for acting as well,” he says.
Working on an international production offered a glimpse into the scale and organisation that large-budget filmmaking demands.
“The difference is gigantic. One international project could be the equivalent of even five local productions. The organisation was amazing. You learn how people carry themselves on set, how departments work together and how teams manage energy without burning people out.”
For him, the experience has also reinforced the value of creative work being compensated at levels that reflect the skill and effort involved.
“It’s a good feeling getting paid how it’s supposed to be for doing something that you really like,” he says.
Exposure to international productions fundamentally changed how Mugo approaches his own work.
“Filmmaking is not easy. You may watch something that lasts one minute but the amount of manpower, preparation, resources and time that goes into creating that one minute is incredible.”
Yet despite the production’s international pedigree, Mugo rejects the notion that Kenyan talent cannot compete globally.
“We have brilliant camera operators, stunt performers and technicians. The talent exists. What needs to change is how we consume our own content and how we distribute it.”
Scenes from The Agency were filmed in Nairobi and Kisumu, creating opportunities for local actors, technicians, stunt performers and production crews to work alongside international teams. He points to a familiar frustration within Kenya’s film ecosystem – local productions often receive praise at festivals and premieres but struggle to find audiences afterwards.
At one point, Mugo almost walked away from the industry entirely. After spending close to two years in the corporate world, he realised something was missing.
“I had completely abandoned my craft,” he says. “It wasn’t bad and I learnt a lot, but it just wasn’t for me.”
The decision to leave the security of corporate life and return to acting remains one of the biggest risks he has taken: “When things go quiet in this industry, it really goes quiet. But I decided to stay with acting.’
For young Kenyan actors dreaming of international productions, his advice is remarkably simple.
“Do not get tired of rejection. Make peace with it because it will build resilience.”
That conviction traces back to a memory from his school days.
He remembers standing alone on an empty stage after a school performance, looking out into the hall and making a quiet promise to himself to pursue acting.
The next chapter, he says, is to help establish a stunt college in Kenya, create better pay structures for performers and build institutions that protect artists.
“You go to film festivals and launches, watch amazing productions and then ask yourself, where can people actually watch this? What platform is it on? Can ordinary people find it? We need more support and investment in what we are doing, and a lot of different players need to come together.”