Meet Bitota Mpolo | Actor, Writer, Director & Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bitota Mpolo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bitota, what role has risk played in your life or career?
This is an interesting question because at one point, I would have considered a lot of things that I do on a day-to-day basis now to be risky. However, I’ve reframed my mindset to not view the things that are a benefit to me or my career to be a risk, even if it doesn’t initially pan out the way I thought it would. Declaring something to be a risk means that you’re already shifting your perspective to prepare for disappointment, and you are acknowledging the chance that it will not pan out in a positive way.

It’s like that Prodigal Son text that Timothee Chalamet referenced, “You could be the master of your fate, you could be the captain of your soul. But you have to realize that life is coming from you and not at you…”

Words carry so much weight. And your mind is a powerful force. When I decided to go to a master’s program for acting, people might have considered that risky to take on more student loans and travel all the way across the Atlantic to go to a school again for a career that is ‘risky’. But I view it as a way for me to open the door to more opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise had access to. Which it thankfully already has.

Any project that I’ve done on my own accord, with my own money, would be considered risky to many others (especially those not as attuned to the creative industry), but for me, it is an investment in my career. Every single opportunity that I create for myself, whether it puts me in more of a difficult financial circumstance or not, is actually to my benefit because without that experience, other opportunities may not have come.

For instance, I took the lead to independently produce my own stage production at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer, and I had never done anything like this before. The play that I wrote, ‘Oh Plagues’, came about because I had a story that I created, believed in, and trusted myself enough to bring to fruition. Not because it was a risk worth taking, but because I knew the work that I would put in to make the investment worthwhile.

That’s also how I look at success. It’s hard to look back on a project and say it wasn’t successful, just because it didn’t do well financially or didn’t get as many eyeballs on it as you thought it would. When in reality, a project can be successful simply because of the knowledge you gained from working on it.

From my first short film, I learned how to go about getting film distribution. I now know how to produce a project for the stage. In the future, when I do have that financial backing, I will be a hundred times more successful with the resources that I’m granted simply because I believed in my vision now and did the work with little to no resources.

At the end of the day, there is no risk when you’re working towards your dream. I think the real risk is waiting for ‘the right time’ to pursue the life that you want to be living.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am a storyteller at my core. Whether it be on paper, on screen, or through a lens, my purpose is to bring stories to life that can speak to someone on some corner of the world.

I think my biggest challenge in stepping into this career was discovering that it is my path. I found my way back to acting by fate, really. I was forced to take an acting class while studying abroad, then it was a random request to act in a web series, and so forth, and then I finally listened to the signs when the pandemic struck and I had nothing else to do.

The challenge was really seeing myself as someone who could thrive as an actor. The industry and popular culture tend to feed you a message of who is and isn’t palatable, and it’s really difficult to break away from that falsehood and see yourself as the fully capable person that you are. But once I stepped into that truth that I can do all of the things, I started building the life that I’ve always dreamed of. From acting in dream projects to creating my own production company.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love a matcha. The Humanist, off of Melrose, does a fantastic lavender matcha. And although I am terrified of my favorite spots getting so popular to the point that they always have a line, I care a lot more about hyping up a small business. Awakening also has a great matcha; it’s a bit out of the way, but well worth the drive.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I truly believe that I am a product of all who came before me, from my ancestors to my parents to every single mentor or teacher that I’ve had. Even if someone had the slightest bit of impact, it is definitely present in the me that I am today. In my undergraduate years, I had the privilege of studying abroad in Australia, and I had a teacher named Claudine Anderson. She truly was one of the pivotal people to help me fall back in love with acting. I am so grateful to her; to this day, she’s been such a support, and she jumps at the opportunity to advocate on my behalf when I reach out about an acting opportunity that I am pursuing.

The plethora of acting teachers that I’ve had in Los Angeles have taught me so much about my craft and helped me to grow my toolbox; from Ranjiv Perera at the Sanford Meisner Institute up in Burbank, to Mark McPherson at studio 24/7, to Deborah Lemen at Lemen Studios they’ve all been so pivotal to my journey as an actor and have, with or without their knowledge, led me to studying acting in the UK.

This year, Philip Bird has been another person who has made a tremendous impact on me. I had the privilege of working with him during a residency at Shakespeare’s Globe in London as part of my program. And that man single-handedly helped me fall in love with Shakespeare. I’ve never worked with a director, so passionate about their craft and also such a genuinely kind human.

Website: https://mebeproductions.com

Instagram: @bitotaaaa

Image Credits
London preview show (green curtain backdrop) by Marie Mayingi