Adjani Salmon is considered a rising star in the filmmaking space. Recent awards, commemorations, and buzz surrounding 

Most recently, he was awarded the 59% Gen Now award, presented to him at the inaugural Soho House Awards in London.

Adjani Salmon is a Jamaican filmmaker and actor who released a nine-episode comedy web series on YouTube in 2018, Dreaming Whilst Black

The series was then made into a TV series on BBC, telling the story of Kwabena Robinson, played by Salmon, who works as a runner on various film sets in London. 

Robinson has to deal with bad dates and a family who want him to change career paths to something more stable.

Back then, he expressed how getting his web series on TV was a humbling experience, as his peers and fellow artists celebrated him.

The series analyzes how the young, British-Jamaican filmmaker, a bit of an author avatar of Salmon, tries to juggle between navigating his lifelong dream of being an artist and the sobering reality of actually being one.

The 59% Gen Now Award is named after Oscar-winning actor Daniel Kaluuya’s recently-established production company, 59% Productions.

The idea of the award is to recognize and further the careers of diverse creative talent in the United Kingdom who are making an impact on the entertainment industry with their work and could also benefit from added visibility.

Kaluuya himself presented the award to Salmon at the awards ceremony on September 1.

Once more, Salmon felt humbled by the award, especially as he told Variety how Kaluuya is someone he’s watched in the cinema. That served as motivation enough to keep pushing forward.

Salmon expressed how he’s aware that an individual’s success doesn’t necessarily translate into success for the community, but it signifies that it’s possible.

For him, Daniel’s career is an example of great work. Knowing that a Black British artist from London can make it means that he, as both actor and filmmaker, can also create a great career for himself.

He also stated how being present at so many celebrity-packed events triggered a bit of an imposter syndrome feeling in him. 

“How was I amongst all these people who I look up to as stars?” 

In the future, he wants to continue doing uncompromising work while also being in a position to have the means to do so himself.

 Salmon won the 2022 BAFTA Award for Dreaming Whilst Black in the Emerging Talent: Fiction category. He was also awarded the Royal Television Society’s 2022 Breakthrough Award.

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