We are very excited to tell you about rising star Jennifer Saayeng, as she will next star in the upcoming Ridley Scott sci-fi drama, Raised by Wolves (HBO/Sky) – a hugely popular series that received great critical acclaim last year. Created by Aaron Guzikowski (Prisoners), Raised by Wolves centers on two androids tasked with raising human children on a mysterious virgin planet. Jennifer will take the role of ‘Nerva,’ a tough atheist woman who runs an underground network of goods and services, a vital player in the series. The second season premiered on February 3, 2022, exclusively on HBO Max streaming service in the U.S. with a total of eight episodes.
Jennifer trained in theatre at The London Studio Centre, winning the Merrifield Award for outstanding all-round performance. Her professional stage highlights include Tony & Olivier Award-winning director, Marriane Elliot’s highly praised five-star productions of Death of A Salesman (Young Vic) and Company (Gielgud Theatre); her “stand out turn” in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Donmar Warehouse); The Etienne Sisters (Stratford East) earning a UK Theatre Award Nomination for Best Performance in a Musical; City of Angels (Donmar Warehouse); Caroline or Change (Chichester Festival Theatre) and The Color Purple (Menier Chocolate Factory).
For television, she has starred in six-part surveillance thriller, The Capture (BBC One) alongside Famke Janssen, Holiday Grainger, Laura Haddock, Cursed (Netflix), Stephen Poliakoff's semi-autobiographical 1950s drama Summer of Rockets (BBC) and Emerald City (NBC).
From Being Inspired to Inspiring Others
Growing up Jennifer says her biggest idol was Will Smith because he “is an American man, a black man, a poignant figure on the screen that I saw often. He was singing, he was acting, he was dancing, and he was really successful.” Jennifer’s inspiration for pursuing acting began when she was 16 years old. She attended an “amazingly fun British school” where she was “engrossed all day, every day, in theater with these like-minded people, and then I went to an arts college.” At every step Jennifer believed that pursuing acting as a career just might pan out for her, but as a backup plan she continued her academic studies. Although she had hopes for being an actress, she never thought she’d ascend to her current level of success. But she does not want to stop, in fact, Jennifer has an even larger career goal of being able “to work and be in a space that says something.” She gave a specific example of wanting to work with the cast of Black Panther. “I’d take all the sequels quite happily.” Although she has done musicals, Jennifer hopes to explore the mediums of television and film more such as doing more on-screen work like “a black British version of La-La Land.” Jennifer states “I love being British, I want to play British, all of these BBC dramas that we see are so inspiring.”
Being an individual who is in the spotlight, Jennifer hopes to be able to inspire others through her acting journey. Her role in Raised by Wolves is the first casting in which she was able to succeed in and be cast as a bad person. During the interview, Jennifer touched her head and stated: “This is alopecia, I have no hair. Everything I’ve done beforehand, even on stage, I think I’ve had a wig on the whole time.”
Alopecia universalis is an autoimmune condition which causes the complete loss of hair on the head and body, including eyebrows and eyelashes. For Jennifer it was huge to be cast as a role that was authentic to her because she is able to be unapologetically her which allows something to be said before she has even spoken. Like many other individuals who grow within various careers, Jennifer picked up a few words of wisdom that she felt would be important to share with anyone who is pursing goals in life. Not just acting but any career or dream. “Somebody did tell me about mindfulness,” at first, she was not sure what they meant by that word. During life it can feel like you are knocking one thing off the goal post and moving up. One must remember that the journey to completing goals is not always easy but there are times where it is because the options and opportunities are endless. Meaning that there is no cap to how high one can climb on their goal post which is a great thing. But Jennifer does want to remind individuals that just because the options and opportunities are endless one must still “remain resilient, patient and keep moving, really commit.”
Creative Credits
- Written by
- Laura Notorangelo
- Written by
- Alexis Jordan
- Photography
- Joseph Sinclair
