Joey
Ansah Biography
 Date
of Birth: 24 November 1982, London, England, UK
Nickname:
Ninjo
Height:
6' 1½" (1.87 m)
Joey Ansah
was born in 1982 in Hammersmith, London, England, 2nd in line
to an older brother, Ryan, 3 years his senior. He is of mixed
ethnicity, with his mother Nicola, originating from Plymouth,
Devon, England and his father Kofi, originally from Ghana, west
Africa. Joey grew up and spent the first 10 years of his life
in Streatham, South London, attending private school first at
Oakfield School and then at Dulwich College Prep. During these
early years in London, his interest and enjoyment for acting and
performance became evident, as he took part in all of the stage
performances that were on offer. The almost obsessive interest
in martial arts and action cinema began very young. As early as
Joey can recount, he has memories of his father renting Action
and martial arts films from the local video shop which he would
avidly watch. Arnold, Stallone, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Van
Damme became instinctive idols and sources of inspiration which
remain to this day. Joey's family then emigrated to Accra, Ghana.
This was initially a culture shock to say the least for a young
Joey, who had up to this point spent most of his life in the almost
exclusively white, upper-middle class environment of the English
public-school system. In Accra, Joey attended Ghana's top International
school for almost 5 years. During this period he was able to truly
get in touch with African culture, and obtain a balanced understanding,
love and pride for both halves of his heritage. Acting and stage
performance continued here for a time as well. It was in Ghana
that Joey's love for martial arts, dancing and stunts really took
off. He joined the local Tae Kwon Do class which he trained at
for 4 years. He became embroiled in the Hip Hop dance craze that
was present at the school in Ghana. He also fell in love with
motorbikes and began riding with friends - including the sons
of an Australian former motocross champion.
A few months
before his 15th birthday, Joey moved back to England (this time
to Plymouth) with his mother and 1-year old sister, Tanoa. He
attended Devonport High school for boys where he completed his
secondary education. During this time Joey also began obsessively
training for the rare Martial art of Ninjutsu with military personnel
in Plymouth. After a brief stint high diving, Joey became very
interested in acrobatics and tumbling, and began to develop this
aspect of Ninjutsu to a very high level. After passing his A-levels,
Joey moved to Oxford where he did a 3 year degree in Human biology
at Oxford Brookes University. Whilst continuing to practice Ninjutsu
and Acrobatics, he also took up the Brazilian martial art of Capoeira
in which he has trained ever since. It was during these 3 years
in Oxford that Joey began his professional work in show-business,
getting work and experience wherever he could. In the first couple
of years at University, Joey did his fair share of extras and
walk-on parts and he saw this as a valuable opportunity to spend
lots of time on varied film, TV and commercial sets, learning
the film making process and more importantly watching and intently
studying established actors at work. Rather than frowning upon
doing extras work as many do, he viewed this as an invaluable
learning period. Joey also worked as a model, both on the catwalk
and in TV and print campaigns. His work in stunts also occurred
at this time, working on Batman Begins as a stuntman, in addition
to working as trainer and fight choreographer on the Sci-Fi series
Starhyke (2006). He has used his Dance, martial arts and acrobatic
abilities for various music videos and Live international shows.
Straight
after graduating from University, Joey moved back to London and
landed a major role in the award winning UK indie film, Lovestruck
(2005). Following that he got an acting agent and his full time
acting career began. Over the last 2 years he has been working
consistently in a varied range of TV and film projects. With notable
TV appearances as the terrorist Abbud in the hit TV show Spooks
(2005) (aka MI5 in the USA), Roman emperor Geta in the prime time
BBC docuseries Timewatch (2006). In 2006 Joey landed a major role
in the upcoming, ground breaking UK action Feature 'Underground'.
His big Hollywood break came in the form of him being cast in
the upcoming Bourne Ultimatum (2007) by award-winning director,
Paul Greengrass, in which he plays 'Desh', a Blackbriar super
assassin working for the CIA who goes up against Jason Bourne
(Matt Damon). The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) is released in the US
and UK Aug 3rd.
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