By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
The Let Them Festival will this month celebrate one of its mentors Jerome Galiao.
Jerome has played an integral role in further captivating the youth and motivating them to reach for the stars as he partook in the 2021 Let Them Festival, spending time with some of the Theatre Acts in Mutare.
The festival which has been running since July has been focused on a specific theme for each month until November.
In July the focus was on poetry while August is focused on dance and September placed emphasis on visual arts.
In October the festival focused on theatre while November the focus in on music.
This year’s festival is running under the theme #Art4Change.
Jerome The Man Behind The Name
Jerome Galiao is a Zimbabwean born actor/model and presenter. He started his career as a TV presenter in Zimbabwe at the age of 18. Best known in Zimbabwe for being the 1st presenter of the Television show youth.com which he began in 2001-3 before participating in the inaugural Supermodel competition in 2003 where he achieved a top 5 spot, subsequently earning himself a contract in South Africa.
To provide some background on this feat, Supermodel was the biggest beauty pageant at the time for both males and females. It brought out talents like Jonathan Denga, Trust Mathe, Michelle Wallace, Greatmore Chatya, Lance Bannaerman, Hussein Abdul and many more!
Jerome moved to South Africa to pursue his career which was not a very easy move as the industry in South Africa has proved to be a challenging one.
While in South Africa he worked as a waiter in Cape Town whilst trying to break into the industry. For many years it was audition after audition and his resilience and passion was all that drove him.
Where most would have given up he continued to persevere in the face of rejection at many castings.
It seems gloomy but just hold on, there is a silver lining to this story… Rejections and failures were not only taken as obstacles by this unrelenting lad, like the few successful ones, he took them as learning curves.
He later moved to Johannesburg where the industry was even more competitive but his self-belief and determination could have him in any industry).
After years of hard work, and failed attempts he entered M-Net’s greatest competition.
A competition held by M-Net to scout for new talent out of Africa. Of all the African countries entered he was one of the top 12 and the only one from Zimbabwe to have been selected from thousands of entries (AMAZING RIGHT?).
This was to be his break into the industry!
To date Jerome Galiao has become some-what of a household name featuring as a lead and cameo in many Television Commercials in SA and Television Series such as Zabalaza, Umlilo, Hope, The Queen, The River, Gomora and Binnelanders whilst his commercial work has seen him appear in commercials for Miller Craft, Standard Bank, FNB, Playboy Planet (*wink*), Makro, Spar and Outsurance!
Jerome told the youths that: “Always believe in yourself and remain consistent no matter how difficult it may become as long as you keep consistent and focus on what you want it will manifest.
“We are all afforded equal mind-sets and despite our backgrounds the opportunity will always present itself some later than others but always on time. Our choices are who we become”
The #Art4Change festival runs from the 25th to 30th of October and November for some truly captivating works of art!
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