Senior Joy Semafumu is an actress and an award nominated teen Host from Uganda.

What really puts her out there is the persistence she had to stay with her goals of becoming an actress even after making life-changing moves, for example, moving from her home Uganda and entirely new country.

She is able to effectively work through her senior year and balance her acting desires at the same time all on her own.

1. What inspired you to go into acting?

I have always been a hyper person. I always felt the need to express myself outwardly. When I was really young, I realized acting was a career and it was cool to me because I didn’t know you could be so many different characters and make a career out of it. My personality just matched with the career and I fell in love with it even more as I grew up and watched movies. I fell in love with cinematic arts and I just felt acting was the correct path for me.

2. Is acting hard to balance with high school?

For the most part, when I started acting, I was in middle school. Later, I transitioned into high school in Uganda, and then it became more difficult to balance so I got into homeschooling. I was homeschooled for the first year/ year and a half of high school which helped me learn to balance both parts. Later on in my life, I eventually just learned to schedule my shoots/auditions on more free days. It was a lot to take in but I am able to balance it out better.

3. What are your family and friends’ views on your acting career?

My family has always been super supportive. They’ve known I’ve wanted to be an actress since I was a child so it was no surprise to them when I told them that was the path I wanted to pursue. I have a lot of friends who are in the same field as I am or who are artsy like, for example, fashion designers. They know or have an idea of where I want to go and they are all very encouraging.

4. Are you in any acting roles right now?

As of right now, I’m finishing up my senior year of high school so nothing yet, but I do have auditions lined up after I graduate. I was in an indie film during summer but that’s all I’m probably going to do until I wrap the metea life.

5. What are future goals for acting? Anything specific you want to go into like t.v/movies?

I definitely want to go into cinematic acting so movies are the goal and I want to win an oscar. My goal is more dramatic or comedic.

6. I heard you are also an award nominated teen host, how does it feel to receive such an accomplishment?

I have been hosting for a long time, since I was thirteen actually. It does sound like quite a heap when I say it to people but where I am from, Uganda and everything, it’s still a big deal, but it’s more easier to accomplish. I feel very honoured to be award nominated. I have also won a couple award shows so that’s pretty cool. It also stands out nicely for college apps too.