In a few short years, Ted Lasso's Toheeb Jimoh has become a breakout star with a big voice
In a Q interview, the actor discusses how he’s using his newfound fame to bring awareness to important issues
For three seasons, Toheeb Jimoh has captured hearts on Ted Lasso as Sam Obisanya, the Nigerian-born midfielder of the fictional AFC Richmond team.
The actor landed the breakout role in 2019, just one year after graduating from drama school, and in that time, he's already earned his first Emmy nomination for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series. Since then, Jimoh's star has only continued to rise. On March 20, he and some of his Ted Lasso castmates participated in a White House press briefing to promote mental health awareness.
"I think I still haven't really processed it," Jimoh told Q's Tom Power about going to the White House. "Our little comedy show about football is suddenly, you know, spiralled to the point where, yeah, we're at the White House, and we're talking to the president about the importance of mental health…. I think this is definitely the moment where we've all gone, 'All right, cool. We've peaked.'"
A central plot of the second season of Ted Lasso was the addition of a team therapist, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles), who helped the titular character address his depression and anxiety stemming from decades of bottling up past trauma. The show has been particularly praised for how it depicts the challenges of dealing with mental health issues.
Jimoh said the reason he got into acting was so he could have a platform to voice his opinions on issues that are important to him.
"When I think back to 16-year-old Toheeb, who didn't really know what he wanted to do yet, I feel like I had all of these thoughts and opinions and passions, and I just remember feeling like nobody cared," he said. "My voice and my opinion felt like it had very little currency. And now I'm 25, and it feels like my voice has a little bit more currency because of the work that I do."
WATCH | Official trailer for Ted Lasso, Season 3:
Representing Nigeria
Like his character, Jimoh is of Nigerian descent, though he was born and raised in the U.K. and spent part of his childhood living in Nigeria. He said he wants to use his influence as an actor to change the way Nigerians are seen in the public sphere and make a real-world impact.
In a prominent storyline on Ted Lasso, Sam protests his football team's biggest sponsor, the fictionalized luxury airline Dubai Air, which is owned by an oil corporation responsible for massive environmental destruction in Nigeria.
Sam takes a moral stand in Season 2, Episode 3 by putting a piece of black tape over Dubai Air's logo on his jersey. In a press conference, he confirms he's accusing the Nigerian government of corruption, which causes controversy for him and the team. The storyline mirrored actual protests against government corruption in the country.
"[To] use my platform to speak for Nigerians everywhere was super awesome," the actor told Power. "It seems a little trivial, but, like, the fact that I could say those lines on a TV show — on this massive platform — made me feel like I had a megaphone in my hand…. I didn't feel so helpless anymore because I could actually just speak to it. I know the stuff that's happening in the show is fictional, but it had real-life ramifications. I know that it did for me, and I hope it did for other people."
When Jimoh looks back at the last few years, he can't believe how far he's come.
"It's been a pretty short time and a bit of an intense whirlwind, but it's been cool," he said. "In 2023, I'm now at the White House, so I don't know how the math adds up, but … it's going pretty well."
The full interview with Toheeb Jimoh is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Toheeb Jimoh produced by Glory Omotayo.
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