Excellence Through Equity Conference 2019:Student Voice- A Catalyst For Change

Remi Adeleke is an actor and writer, known for Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), The Last Shall Be First and 6 Underground (2019).
Adeleke was born into a rich Nigerian family and experienced the best that life had to offer. All of that was ruined when at the young age of 5 his father died and the government seized his family's wealth. His mother moved the now-impoverished family to the United States, where they settled in the Bronx borough of New York City. At the time, Bronx, NY was one of the toughest inner cities in America. Growing up there in the 1980s and 1990s, Adeleke said, he looked to hip-hop culture as his “father” and took to stealing, selling drugs and “running scams.” “In my mind I was successful,” he said. “That was not success. That was failure. It was the wrong thing.” Eventually a “wakeup call” led him to change his ways, he said.
In early summer of 2002, Remi enlisted in the U.S. Navy and embarked on a journey that instilled a key lesson that he teacher to this day—perseverance. Remi is the former co-founder of Acumen Performance Group, a consulting company that facilitates mental toughness, leadership and team building training for Olympians, pro athletes and corporations.
When Remi is not on the set of a project, he is speaking to men and women young and old about the support he received to overcome the odds, even when it did not make sense. His is an inspiring story of true personal transformation.