Jot Agyeman

JOT Agyeman

John Osei Tutu Agyeman, also known as JOT Agyeman (born 28 June), is a Ghanaian actor, media practitioner and television anchor. He began his entertainment career on stage at the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana, Legon.

He was host of TV3's breakfast show Start and was a judge of the reality show Hottest Host and host of political chat programme Hot Issues.

He spent a major part of his career as a book writer and editor with Eagle Media House, London, UK, where he held the position of Director of Publishing. JOT Agyeman has written and edited bestselling titles including War on Poverty and The Concept of Love in Relationships. He returned to Ghana in 2006 to pursue a career in the media. He is the author of two books: I Have the Power (Destiny Books, 2003) and The Concept of Love in Relationships (Temple Publishing, 2003).

John Osei Tutu Agyeman, is popularly called JOT. He has a long list of television credentials to his name. His television career started at Ghana Television GTV as a guest presenter on the Breakfast Show in the late 1990s. A year later he returned to the United Kingdom for further training returning to Ghana in 2006 and to the GTV Newsroom where he worked on the African Union Summit in 2007 and the State visit of President John Kufuor to the United Kingdom. He also worked as producer for the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. His rise to the top really took off when he was invited by one of his mentors Mr. Robert Kofi Nyantakyi to handle the morning programme Start on TV3 with Matilda Haynes and Ronald Walker. He credits Mr. Nyantakyi and Mr. Kofi Bucknor as the two people who guided his early career.

January 2010 began a new chapter in the television executive’s life. A call from the management of e.TV Ghana saw his move to the new station as Programmes Manager with responsibility to produce a competitive programming agenda that could see e.TV Ghana at the top of the ratings. He admits it was not an easy road but even before he rolled out his first programmes, Exposure and e Business Journal, he knew what could work and what could not. Other programmes rolled out under the e.TV Ghana Brand name include Breakfast TV, Awake, 100 Degrees, News Xtra, Week in Focus, The Late Nite Celebrity Show, Girl Talk and Big Screen. In September 2010, he was appointed General Manager for e.TV Ghana, a position he held till 31 October 2012. He was instrumental in the formation of the Ghana office of the Institute for Media Practice, a research-based institution that focuses on media training, surveys, monitoring and evaluation of the media in the West African sub-region. JOT was also Head of Media and Communications for the Joyce Ababio College of Creative Design. In November 2014, he returned to e.TV Ghana as a Managing Consultant to the Network. His passion is training and youth development.

Early life

Born in Kumasi, Ghana, JOT Agyeman is the youngest of 10 children from his mother's side and the 16th from his father. His father was a traditional ruler (chief and clan head), the first ever Nkosuohene (Development Chief) to be installed in Ghana by the Late Asantehene Otumfuo Opoku Ware II of the Ashanti Kingdom. He attended Prempeh College for high school, Wesley College for Teacher Training and continued to the University of Ghana, Legon, where he studied Theater Arts for both undergraduate and graduate degrees. He specialized in play writing with a focus on Asante history and culture.

Theatrical background

His work as a director of stage and a playwright is well documented with a string of awards and work. He has performed in several roles on stage including Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution and Shakespeare's Othello. His other written works include Days of Thunder (2004), I Am My Father's Baby (2007), and Sons of Destiny (2007). In 2009, he wrote and directed one of the most elaborate plays in the history of Ghanaian stage culture, Asanteman, the history of the Ashanti Kingdom of Ghana, West Africa. As a writer, he has written several plays and movie scripts including the much acclaimed satire A Penny For Your Wife, which was showcased at the Efua Sutherland Drama Studio in 2009.. His new work includes "Flight of an eagle" 2015, and "The Grave Digger" 2015.

Film

JOT is quite an elusive character, shying away from the limelight and all the glitz and glamour of the celebrity trail preferring rather to stay behind a lap top and design new concepts and develop new content for television and events. An exceptionally brilliant actor, he has starred in movies such as Fools In Love by Akorfa Edjeani, The Blinkards by Prof. Martin Owusu, Double by KSM, I Sing of a Well by Leila Djansi and Rain by Nabil Maizongo, playing the lead in movies and winning rave reviews as well as a nomination from the African Movie Academy Awards 2009 and the Ghana Movie Awards 2010. He recently starred as the President of Ghana in Award-winning director Shirley Frimpong Manso's acclaimed political drama series "Shampaign". He was commissioned in 2013 to write two biopics on two of Africa's best known heroes and is currently writing a third biopic on the life of Ghana's first President Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Awards

In June 2011, he was named as the Best Television Programme Director in Ghana at the Radio and Television Personality Awards 2011. In 1987, he won the best Actor Award for his role in Martin Owusu's The Story Ananse Told and was the first recipient of the Patrons' Award for Excellence at the School of Performing Arts, University of Ghana. He also wrote the African Movie Academy Award for Short Film Not my Daughter in 2008. The film was produced by Akorfa Edjeani Asiedu.

Other work

He is a media consultant and currently President of the Institute for Media Practice Ghana. In 2011, he founded Solaris Films, a wholly owned Ghanaian film company that focuses on the production of African documentaries and biographies. He developed and hosted night-time socio-political current affairs programme State of the Nation on e.TV Ghana, and was Show Director for Miss Ghana 2012 pageant. His other interests include being a Resident Judge for the 4Syte TV Music Video Awards, a board member for the Ghana Fashion Awards and a judge on Miss Tourism Ghana. In 2013, he set up the Media and Broadcasting Awards to motivate Ghanaian media practitioners to adhere to good media practices.

Other credits

References

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