'Mallow is brilliant' — Young Offender Demi Isaac Oviawe defends hometown
Demi Isaac Oviawe and Mícheál O Muircheartaigh at the launch of the Coca-Cola Alone Christmas campaign. Picture: Andres Poveda
IMAGINE an eight-year-old girl who lives for the limelight. The school nativity play is being cast. She holds her breath. That iconic leading lady role just has to be hers.
But Demi Isaac Oviawe discovers her destiny this time is to tread the boards as one of the three wise men. “It was the first play I ever did,” she recalls as we meet over Zoom. “I was super-heartbroken about being told I was to be one of the wise men.
“But then I realised, every girl wants to be Mary. And I said to myself, if I was going to be a man, then I would be the best man ever — I made sure I had a beard and everything.”
The school was Mallow No 1 National School and it was there the acting bug first bit. “I love the whole ‘look at me’ element,” she says.
It continued to sink its teeth into Demi as she attended Davis College Mallow: “You make most of your memories in secondary school. It’s also where my interest in drama spiked. If I wasn’t on stage, I was behind the scenes.
“I like to be the centre of attention. When you’re on stage, the spotlight is literally on you. It’s the best adrenaline rush ever.”
Demi, who was born in Nigeria, has lived in Mallow since she was a toddler. At five, Demi lost her mother to breast cancer and her father died after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2016. She lives with her four brothers, her stepmother and her late father’s brother, Courage.
And though she is barely 20, her face is known well beyond Munster, thanks to her star turn as Linda Walsh in the RTÉ/BBC-produced comedy series The Young Offenders.
“I always dreamed of being an actor. But it’s similar to how every child wants to go to the moon. So, my plan was to study Arts in UCC with a view to becoming a secondary school teacher,” she says.
But, in 2017, she won the role of Linda after auditioning on YouTube. “It was my big break,” she says.
The cast of The Young Offenders “are all friends in different ways”, adds Demi who is also a host on Cork’s 96fm.
Another — new-found — pal is Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh. They joined forces recently as Coca-Cola and Alone ambassadors.
“I was so starstruck when I first met Mícheál. We got to have the chats and he is the nicest man ever. He is such a massive legend."
Demi played camogie and football growing up: “I could be really bad at sport but as long as I was winning, that was all that mattered. I didn’t care how I won, I just wanted to win — you can ask anyone.”
She is fiercely proud of her home town. “I’ve lived there since I was two or three. I think most people hear Mallow and say, yuk. And to them, I say: ‘Mallow is brilliant'."
Last year, Demi was studying for her Leaving Certificate while commuting to Dublin for RTE's Dancing with the Stars.
And it was in Dublin also that she first realised just how well-known her character Linda had become. “After season one of The Young Offenders came out, I was in sixth year. We had gone to the National Museum with the school. Our bus had stopped at a petrol station and I was in the bathroom. I was bursting. And this American woman came over to me. I mean, I was literally bursting. She said, ‘Oh my God, I know you from somewhere.’ I looked at her and I said, ‘I have never met you.' But we ended up talking for 20 minutes.
“It’s a privilege to meet people who love the show.”
Being part of a campaign helping older members of the community is also “fantastic” she says. “I discovered through Alone the story of a woman who used to order stuff on Amazon just so she could have human interaction when it was delivered," adds Demi.
Discrimination on the grounds of age — as well as race and appearance — is something that Demi believes we all need to address. “I'm not talking just about racism but discrimination against all minorities,” she says.
“I was at a conference a few months ago and I spoke about how Black Lives Matter was not just about black people, and a girl of Indian descent told me I was the first person she heard acknowledging that.
“We should stand together as a nation: LGBTQ, the Travelling community, all of us. We all have to stand against racism and discrimination.
“You can’t live in a country with a majority of white people and be different, and not have experienced discrimination.
“I have been called the N-word. Lots of times.
“I have witnessed my younger brother discriminated against — by kids who didn’t know what the words they were using meant."
The shortage of a diverse range of role models in the wider media landscape is an issue, she feels. “If you don’t look a certain way, if the way you look is not seen on TV, you get slagged — the stereotypical blonde, blue-eyed woman, or skinny white man.
“But that’s not what our communities are. We have so many different stories.”
- Coca-Cola and Alone are encouraging young people to connect safely with an older person and share a video, image or story on social media using #CokexALONE in December. Alone, 0818 222 024, or https://alone.ie/what-we-do/
Demi played camogie and football growing up. “As long as I was winning, that was all that mattered - ask anyone."
Of her Young Offenders castmate she says: "Jennifer (Barry), who plays my sister, is also like a sister in real life. We started in the series together and we have such great craic.”
She is fiercely proud of Mallow: “I think most people hear Mallow and say, yuk. And to them I say: ‘Mallow is brilliant. There’s a cinema, a swimming pool, multiple football pitches’.”
‘This American woman came over to me. She said, ‘Oh my God, I know you from somewhere.’ I looked at her and I said, ‘I have never met you.’ I was bursting to go to the toilet but we ended up talking for 20 minutes.”
“I was super-heartbroken. But then I realised: Every girl wants to be Mary. And I said to myself, if I was going to be a man, then I would be the best man ever.”
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