Michael Afolayan

Michael Afolayan is an actor, performer, visual artist, and cultural mediator based in Athens. His practice spans physical theater, performance, storytelling, and rhythm-based work, with a strong focus on the body, voice, and sound as narrative tools. For the past twelve years, he has been studying classical percussion, a practice that deeply informs his performative and theatrical language. From the outset of his career, he has been actively engaged in advocacy around the right of second-generation youth to access citizenship, using culture as a tool for visibility, empowerment, and social justice.

He has collaborated as an actor and performer with major theatre institutions in Greece, including the National Theatre of Greece, Theatre Poreia, and To Treno sto Rouf, as well as with established directors, and has also worked in television series. He is the founder and artistic director of the ANASA Cultural Centre, an independent organization dedicated to African and Afrodiasporic arts, where the empowerment of first- and second-generation communities through culture is central to its mission.