Lover boy on set, turbaned for life

When acting, Hiram Maina removes his headdress to take a role in a local TV programme. His sister, Carey Pricilla, a make-up artiste lets us in on charting their career paths and sticking to their faith.

Harriet James @harriet86jim

In a local TV programme Tahidi High, Hiram Maina, known for his stage name Hiram, comes out as a young, naive man famously known for being a lover boy. Hiram is an actor, producer, creative writer and a scriptwriter.

But while he acts without a turban in his role, in real life, he is a Mukorino and the renowned brother to make-up artist Carey Pricilla. 

The two are the last children in a family of six with a one-and-half year gap who recall of their childhood life being charactarised by playing together, going to school together and this further worked to strengthen their sibling bond and be each others support system in their work. 

“Hiram supported me by recommending me to be a make-up-artiste at a local vernacular TV station where he wrote scripts and was also a producer.

Now that I have made a name for myself in the industry, I ensure he gets work in production and branding whenever I get the opportunity,” she says 

Being brought up as followers of the Akorino religious group, the two have grown to love their faith and way of worship.

However, it has been a challenge defending while pursuing their respective careers. 

Pricilla has previously received a lot of bashing since being a make-up artist goes against the church rules.

The fashion enthusiast has broken the ceiling though, and has become one of the highly sought make-up artist in the country.

On the other hand, Hiram was rejected in many auditions for standing his ground and wearing his turban. 

Getting into character

 “Hiram would go for auditions and be rejected simply because he had the turban.

Some producers would laugh at him while others told him to his face that he would never amount to anything in the industry.

I loved the fact that he persisted, was aggressive and never gave up on his passion,” she recalls 

The rejections also taught him flexibility in that he is able to adapt and act with or without the turban depending on the character he is given. 

“Akorinos are known by their turban. So, when my brother started acting without it, the church had a big problem.

He even stopped going to church. But later, they came to understand he was just acting, not sinning,” Pricilla says. 

 “Acting is all about being flexible and getting out of ones element into a character of another person.

That’s why you will see that someone will act a role of a witch, but in real life he or she is totally different from the character given.

So, the same applies in my brother’s case,” she explains. 

Pricilla recalls their humble beginnings in Nanyuki where they were born and raised for the better part of their childhood.

Their parents struggled to provide even the basic needs. Getting three meals a day was a task.

However, Pricilla’s parents ensured that they got education and all her siblings studied up to the university level. 

Hiram attended Dr Mwenje High school, Nairobi from 2010 to 2014. This is where he honed his acting skills.

“He would lie a lot to my parents. He would skip school and go to theatre. It was never an easy thing, but he sacrificed a lot,” she narrates. 

Dream comes true

It was during this period in the year 2010, that he met the late actress, Nancy Nyambura, popularly known as Jastorina, who showed him the ropes in acting. 

“She used to encourage him and tell him not to give up even as he nurtured his talent.

She would also call him for auditions whenever there was one and encouraged him to participate regardless of what people thought of him and his turban.

She was a great mentor who nurtured the 25-year-old actor at a young age. May her soul rest in peace,” narrates Pricilla. 

His desire for film pushed him to pursue journalism and mass communication at Riara University between the year 2010 and 2013.

While still in campus, he got a role in a local programme, Mashtaka in the year 2011. He joined Tahidi High, in the year 2015. 

As he received a call of acceptance at Tahidi High, he also received a call to act in another programme, but he opted for the former. 

Hiram won his first award in 2016. He won best actor of the year at X-treem awards.

“It came as a surprise to him. I too didn’t expect he would win because there were big names in the category and he had just been in the limelight for a year. It was a big thing for the family,” Pricilla says.