Why Munya Chawawa is 'jumping ship' from social media to Shakespeare
BBC News
Comedian, content creator, and documentary maker Munya Chawawa, a star of online video's golden era, discusses his transition from social media to stage acting in a modern take on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Chawawa reflects on the hedonistic 1990s illegal rave scene, saying he "absolutely misses" an era of unrecorded, carefree dancing. He expresses a desire to reduce his phone usage and notes that many people who attended those raves long for the same freedom from digital documentation.
"I've obviously done a super-deep dive into rave culture... I absolutely miss an era where we were dancing for ourselves and not for a digital world somewhere," he says.
Chawawa, 33, rose to fame through videos like Unknown P and Jonny Oliver, but has since diversified his career with TV documentaries, stand-up comedy, and now theatre. He is set to star as Bottom in the Chichester Festival Theatre's 90s-inspired production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
"I've been making my short-form satirical videos for almost eight years... But I suppose the question at the beginning was always - if these sketches do work and they do catapult me into this new stratosphere of entertainment, where am I trying to land?" he questions.
His answer? Theatre.