Exposing 'Parts Of Yourself' Through Art

Sydney actor Zindzi Okenyo has appeared in major theatre productions, cheerfully presented Play School and starred as Amanda in Channel Ten's Sisters. But she's generating her most personal work as the singer, rapper and songwriter Okenyo, with long-awaited EP The Wave out now.

Today Okenyo, hyper-slashie, is enjoying Melbourne, where she has been treading the boards in Bell Shakespeare's Antony And Cleopatra. "I think I just saw on the schedule, when we finish this week, it'll be our 70th show!" she says. "The most shows I've ever done was 80."

The African-Australian Okenyo grew up in different environments around the country - her mother, a single parent, an ESL teacher. Then living in Hobart, she made her stage debut in A Christmas Carol and was accepted into NIDA. In 2013, Okenyo joined Play School. She also began composing songs after enduring heartache. Inspired by '90s neo-soul and the surging avant'n'B movement, Okenyo created buzz with Broken Chest before eventually signing to Elefant Traks. Having supported Cali teen Billie Eilish over summer, she's next embarking on her inaugural national headlining tour behind The Wave. "I'm really looking forward to performing to crowds that know me a bit more now, as an artist, and know the songs."

As a queer woman of colour, Okenyo epitomises the new diversity and individualism enriching Australia's urban music culture. And The Wave will absorb her fans with its intricate electronic textures, even as Okenyo raps more. She co-produced the project with Melbourne's Lionel Towers, formerly of the euphoric electro-pop outfit Gypsy & The Cat. Indeed, Elefant Traks' Tim "Urthboy" Levinson suggested Okenyo try a writing session with Towers. It certainly was convenient, with Okenyo cast in the Melbourne Theatre Company's edition of Disgraced - Ayad Akhtar's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about Islamophobia. Luckily, the pair hit it off. "It's been really hard for me to find a producer that actually can translate my ideas. Because I write all the music and write the demos and everything, but I'm not a producer," Okenyo notes. "Because he understood what I wanted, it was a really great collaborative process."

Last year Okenyo dropped the EP's anthemic lead single, Woman's World, introducing her rapping. (A remix featured Miss Blanks and Jesswar.) "Tim listened to some demos that I had written and I was kind of experimenting with rapping. He said, 'Oh, you're really amazing at it,' and encouraged me to go down that path. So I guess I just pushed myself in that direction." In fact, it was "liberating" to expand on her lyrics. Still, where Woman's World is "external and proclamatory", The Wave's other numbers are "more vulnerable and more insular". "When I was first writing it, I was really in a very vulnerable and very real time of change," Okenyo enlightens. "I suppose, coming from an actor's background, I'm very interested in how we change and evolve as humans. I've always pushed myself into places of going, 'Ok, if I can express this and go deeper into my artistry, then perhaps that will reach other people.'"

She describes this process as "scary". For The Wave, Okenyo specifically wrote about her anxiety - with songs conveying both "a sense of hopelessness and hopefulness". The EP title alludes to not only life cycles but also a feeling of being "overwhelmed" and then the release of sharing that with receptive audiences. Above all, Okenyo welcomes the emotional immediacy she can articulate as a music-maker. "I always appreciate it when I see other artists actually go there in an authentic way and expose parts of themselves."

Okenyo's latest single, 20/20, is accompanied by a raw short film. If, at one point, she seemingly compartmentalised acting and music, they increasingly intersect. Okenyo's main challenge? Programming. Recently, Okenyo compellingly guest starred in Harrow - the ABC's Disney-backed crime drama with Ioan Gruffudd. "My career as an actor has been really heavily in the theatre world and theatre is still my number one love. I just love that medium of storytelling. [But] it's been really great to get into more TV. I loved doing Harrow. It was just so fun." Okenyo plans to visit Los Angeles soon to network. "I'm hoping to get over there and get a manager," she says. "Again, I'm always looking to expand my horizons and see what the rest of the world has to offer."