Conrad Kemp, King Edward VII School (Class of 1994) & KEPS Old Boy recently filmed with Orlando Bloom and Forrest Whitaker in “Zulu”, due for international release later in the year and which closed the Cannes Film Festival this year! He grew up in Johannesburg, where he attended King Edward VII Preparatory School and King Edward VII School, and studied law, English literature and international studies at Stellenbosch University. He entered the corporate world in 2000, joining Nedcor as part of their Leadership Development Programme. Following his successful completion of the programme, he became a project-manager in Client Information Analytics.

In September 2001 he decided to train as an actor. This he did at The Gaiety School of Acting in Dublin, Ireland, receiving the Riverdance Scholarship in 2002 and graduating in 2003. In 2004 he was nominated for Best Male Performance at the Dublin Fringe Festival for his portrayal of Hally in Master Harold… and The Boys. He made his West End debut in Marie Jones’ two-hander, Stones In His Pockets in 2006. His big screen debut was as part of the official selection at the Sundance Film Festival in the short film The Sound of People, which also won six other international awards at a variety of festivals. His other works include Hyde and Jeckyll (Prague Theatre Festival), Martin Crimp’s Cruel and Tender (Project Arts Centre, Dublin), Neil Jordan’s White Horses (Kinsale Arts Festival, Kinsale), Alone It Stands (Olympia, Dublin, and Irish Tour), Treasure Island (Derby Playhouse), and Shakespeare in Rehearsal (Irish Tour).

In South Africa Conrad has written and performed for Soft at the FNB Dance Umbrella, played Boxer in Animal Farm at the Dance Factory and toured Khayelitsha, Masiphumelele, Ocean View and Hillbrow with the Irish theatre company, TEAM, and Leo Butler’s Devotion, a tour that concluded with shows at The Baxter and The Joburg Theatres. He has acted in film and television for Sony Pictures, Equinoxe Films, ITV, HBO and the BBC. His most recent screen outings were as Evan Hunter in Julian Jarrold’s The Girl opposite Imelda Staunton, Toby Jones and Sienna Miller, and in Jerome Salle’s Zulu opposite Forest Whitaker and Orlando Bloom. The Girl was nominated for three Golden Globes, and Zulu chosen to close the 66th Cannes Film Festival. Conrad wrote and performed, to significant acclaim, The Clown and Mrs Fell at The National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, and performed in James Ngcobo’s Sunjata and Rajesh Gopie’s The Coolie Odyssey at the Market Theatre, and Mike van Graan’s Brothers In Blood at Artscape.

He has devised three plays, worked in applied theatre in vulnerable communities in South Africa and Ireland, taught rhetoric and argumentation at tertiary and corporate levels, written four times for production, and was the Head of Screen Acting at AFDA Johannesburg from February 2008 until February 2009. His teaching has also included designing and teaching workshops in text, sub-text and improvisation for the Gaiety School of Acting, Sibikwa Arts Centre and Common Purpose. He contributed a work for the Rea Vaya BRT Public Artworks Programme, and a short-story to the David and Goliath Auction at The Bag Factory, Johannesburg. He has contributed as a freelance journalist to the art’s pages of The Weekender and The Mail and Guardian, and graduated in 2009 as a bursary participant from the Meridian Programme for regional leaders run by international NGO Common Purpose. He is a trustee for the UK-based charity Dramatic Need. He is currently studying towards a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town.

He was recently in Cannes for the premier of Zulu, which will be hitting screens later this year. In July he begins rehearsals for the Broadway revival of Romeo and Juliet, in which he will play Benvolio. Romeo and Juliet was last performed on Broadway in 1977.

When Conrad was asked how and if his schooling at KEPS and KES had had any influence on his career path, he had the following to say:

I attended KEPS from 1984. Grade 2. Mrs Grawez. Still very clear memories. I enjoyed soccer, cricket, athletics, choir and tennis.

And this was where I performed a play for the very first time. I was a village wench in The Pied Piper of Hamlin and I will never forget that experience. As it turns out, I was to play many, many female roles during the following years at KEPS and KES. Darren Brown, a rugby, cricket and athletics hero four years ahead of me, even sent a message asking for my number following the 1991 production of Our Town, thinking I was a girl shipped in from St Mary’s.

At KEPS I was lucky enough to be Head Boy and Top Boy in 1989. I also won the Good Fellowship Award.

At KES, Drama, which was an extramural activity, received particular energy and focus from Hugh Wilson, the legendary Latin master who died in 2010. Under his guidance I learned a certain level of professionalism and a sense of duty to the story, and also the value of trusting those around you whilst endeavouring to be worthy of their trust. I dedicated my 2010 production of The Clown and Mrs Fell at the National Arts Festival to the memory of Mr Wilson. We did not always see eye to eye, but he remains incredibly influential.

I also owe a great deal to Paul Edey, who encouraged independent thought and considered irreverence.

I found KES to be a very supportive environment. Plays, choir and debating, which I also enjoyed, were very well supported. Tickets to the School Play, the Winter Production and the Inter-House Play Festival were mostly over subscribed, and the steps in the Lecture Hall often did service as seats for the overflow of boys lending their ears and thoughts. I’m sure the coffee and biscuits helped. I’m also sure that we enjoyed our greatest support when we were debating against girls’ schools… Nonetheless, there was a real appreciation for the courage and effort it took to stand up in front of an audience, whether it was in a debate or at The Tandem Theatre (now the Hugh Wilson Theatre). I am also struck, in retrospect, at the cross-over between those primarily interested in sports and those primarily interested in cultural activities. I am also struck by the fact that effort was always respected ahead of achievement. Taking a risk by trying may have resulted in occasional mockery in the short term, but always received enduring respect from fellow pupils.

I was also a keen cricketer and athlete, although I never really exploded into first team contention. My cross-seam quick deliveries terrorised the lower ranks and the far flung pitches. My rugby was limited to one season of attack-minded midfield play. I was a bit of a sieve in defense, I am afraid, and the sport ended for me when a Jeppe Boys’ lock broke through a line-out before breaking through me and, as it turned out, my head.

KES really shone for me in the transition from an exclusively white school to an inclusive school. Some of my contemporaries demonstrated real leadership and ethical maturity in the manner in which they actively engaged the difficult path that this transition meant for many. KES can be an intimidating place, not least for a pupil who has never experienced a uniform, or strong tradition, or an imposing building, or luxurious facilities, or the dynamics of a large, boys-only school many miles from their homes and comfort zones. I will never forget how some of the boys recognised this and took it upon themselves to try to ease this transition, to guide and support new boys from previously excluded communities into the KES environment. Similarly, I will never forget the courage of the first black students, how they taught us the meaning of resilience and bravery, and opened our eyes to the full disgrace of what had governed us, and the full value of their willingness to engage in spite of it.

Conrad was a prefect at King Edward, won Best Actor and Best Speaker, and was also the recipient of one of the Memorial Scholarships. The King Edward community is proud of this rising star and congratulate him on his successes so far and eagerly will follow this dynamic individual on the big screen! (The attached image is a still from the movie, ‘Zulu’, soon to be released onto the international screen.)