American-Ugandan actor and playwright, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, has been recognized by the Silicon Valley African Film Festival for showcasing and uplifting the image of Africa in the diaspora through creative expressions.
Ntare who in April this year joined the cast of the upcoming Netflix show ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ in which he will star as Detective Raymond Griggs, received the Cultural Icon Award on Saturday during the 2021 Silicon Valley African Film Festival.
He was honored for his stellar career as actor and film director through which he has uplifted the image and dignity of the global African community, as well as strengthening the African culture with his passion and creativity.
The annual festival promotes an understanding and appreciation of African and Africans through moving images.
This year’s edition which ran from October 8 to 10 marked the 12th anniversary of Silicon Valley African Film Festival.
In honoring Ntare, Silicon Valley African Film Festival said the Cultural Icon Award is exclusively presented to individuals who have demonstrated years of dogged commitment to showcasing and uplifting the image of Africa in the diaspora through creative expressions.
“The award celebrates Africa’s cultural ambassadors for their inspiring work and role in sharing Africa’s story with the global community,” the festival’s citation for Ntare reads.
The festival celebrates the vast richness of the African continent through the lenses of Africa and emerging filmmakers and provides audiences with exquisite lenses to the real Africa.
Ntare, 53, who was born in New Hampshire, U.S. to Ugandan parents, made his film debut in 2006 American political action thriller film, ‘Blood Diamonds’ which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeniffer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou. The film told the story of diamonds mined in African war zones and sold to finance conflicts, and thereby profit warlords and diamond companies across the world.
His first TV role was in ‘New York Undercover’ in 1995 and has since featured in ‘Heroes’, ‘CSI Crime Scene Investigation’, ‘The Riches’ and ‘Treme’.
His most recent success has been 2018 drama television series ‘The Chi’ by Showtime. In the four-season show, Ntare plays Ronnie Davis, an alcoholic war veteran who was discharged from service after he was diagnosed with meniere’s disease. ‘The Chi’ is about life in a neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago.
In a recent interview with Parle Magazine, he talks about his identity as one that makes him feel like “a child of two worlds”.
“I was born in the states, but I’ve always been going back and forth to Uganda since before I can remember. So I really felt like a child of two worlds. I never felt like I was uprooted and was all of the sudden in a new place,” Ntare told Parle Magazine in April this year.
Last year, Ntare won the Best Actor Award at the Durban International Film Festival for his role in IFC Films’ ‘Farewell Amor’.
He is set to direct a documentary on Ugandan studio photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo, which Steven Soderbergh is executive producing.
In Netflix’s ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’, Ntare will play Detective Raymond Griggs, a character created specifically for the series. Griggs is an intense and tenacious LAPD Detective investigating the murder of Jerry Vincent, a defense attorney whose cases Mickey Haller (Garcia-Rulfo) has taken over.
While Griggs is initially an antagonist to Mickey, the two men eventually develop a wary working relationship as they each try in their own way to get to the bottom of the strange events surrounding the murder.
