Jimmy Akingbola

Akingbola speaks honestly about being raised by a white family, and how he would avoid family holidays to Devon for fear of being stared at.

Akingbola is also close to the siblings from his birth family, and they too spoke with honesty - they had endured a difficult upbringing with their father, and envied Akingbola for his life with the Crows. And he’s still my little boy.” But it still pained her to remember the little black girl who was also in the children’s home that day, so desperate to be fostered that she asked: “What about if I take my skin off?” This was not a neat story in which Akingbola said there were no problems in being a black child raised by a white family. But then a family, the Crows, visited the home and chose him as their foster child. His father had disowned him, believing he was another man’s child; his mother, who suffered from schizophrenia, abandoned him in a social-security office. She insisted that she did nothing special: “I just looked after a little boy, didn’t I?

Adopted by a white family at two-years-old, the actor revisited his childhood and questioned how it had shaped his adult life.

Reading his care home case notes at the beginning of [Handle with Care](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/whats-on-tv-this-week-guide-listings-sas-rogue-heroes-the-white-lotus-season-2-1938477), Akingbola – now 44 and an award-winning actor – choked up. And how does growing up black in a white family affect someone’s sense of self? “I don’t think I did anything special, I just looked after a little boy,” she insisted. Retracing his formative steps and talking to black role models who also spent time in care, including Lennie James and Kriss Akabusi, the intensely personal documentary used Akingbola’s own experiences as a template to ask important questions. “I didn’t want to spoil it for you,” Jimmy replied. She eventually left the building, apparently abandoning her son,” he read.

Actor Jimmy Akingbola is set to star in a new and personal ITV documentary as he revisits moments from his childhood in foster care and how he became a ...

This is a cultural, iconic, global hit sitcom that is still being watched today – that is a care story and now I'm playing Geoffrey in the drama version. So as a kid, I grew up watching a version of myself. [Radio Times](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/documentaries/jimmy-akingbola-handle-care-big-rt-interview/): "Will Smith is playing [Fresh Prince executive producer] Benny Medina. The actor grew up watching the original series, with Will Smith as the main character who is sent to live with his rich aunt and uncle who live in Bel-Air. Jimmy was then cast to play Geoffrey the British butler in the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air revamp series, Bel-Air, which was a huge milestone in his career. In 1996, Jimmy started at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) in Wandsworth, London where he went on to complete a three-year, full-time acting diploma He remained fostered instead of adopted as his foster mother, Gloria, wished to respect the status that he and Eunice had as a birth mother and son, according to [Holby City](https://www.dailystar.co.uk/latest/holby-city) star Jimmy Akingbola will revisit his childhood in a new [ITV ](https://www.dailystar.co.uk/latest/itv)documentary called Jimmy Akingbola: Handle With Care. He was then placed into a children's home and fostered by a white British family, most of whom feature in the ITV documentary. By 1980, when Jimmy was two years old, his parents split up and shortly after, his mother Eunice took him to the social security office in Plaistow and left him there as she struggled with her undiagnosed schizophrenia. His parents, who were from Nigeria, moved to the UK prior to his birth but they struggled in the capital. The deeply personal film will see the award-winning actor as he opens up about his younger years as a

Acclaimed actor and presenter Jimmy Akingbola is shining a light on the realities of growing up in the care system in ITV documentary 'Jimmy Akingbola ...

At two years old Jimmy was uprooted from his Nigerian family and fostered by a white British family, who raised him alongside their birth children as if he were their own. Jimmy speaks to his own foster family and biological siblings about their feelings and meets fellow actor Lenny James and retired Olympic athlete Kriss Akabusi, who both share their own personal stories of foster and adopted care and children’s homes, good and bad. Ahead of the show airing, a clip has been released showing Jimmy talking to his foster siblings about racism they experienced growing up.