Nana Kagga is Unstoppable, and We Can’t Help Taking Notes!

The actor opens up about her unrelenting quest to live her truth!

Nana Kagga is unstoppable; a chemical engineer, who gave up a great career making ammunition to be a Hollywood star, landed roles on ‘CSI New York’, ‘Hitchhiker’, ‘He is not that into you,’ ‘A Good Day To Be Black and Sexy’, ‘Star trek’, and numerous commercials for brands like Apple and Pepsi, and at the height of it, she gave it all up to return to Uganda with the dream of being a part of “our own Hollywood”.

Her career has since grown from strength to strength; founding Savanna Moon, her own production company and producing ‘Mela’, ‘The Life’ and ‘Beneath The Lies’, all successful productions, and being a part of the force that’s making the dream of ‘our own Hollywood’ a reality. The 42-year-old mother-of-three is back on the screen, this time on ‘Prestige’, a serial drama that follows the tumultuous lives of rival ad executives who happen to be sisters. She plays Jazmine, an envious, competitive and power-hungry shark, who is constantly feeling inadequate, and won’t let her sister Eunice (played by Cleopatra Koheirwe) get in her way.

Hanging with Nana Kagga is a real vibe; she’s feisty and effervescent, but also very intelligent – she’s that close friend who constantly has your back when you need both a good laugh and great advice. Here, the actor talks to Satisfashion UG about her unrelenting quest to live her truth. Because she’s such a storyteller, we let her tell her story in her own words.

Finding Nana Kagga

When I was a kid, I used to entertain my parents’ friends, and my dad could see that I really liked drama, so he asked at school that they do not allow me to act in anything because apparently, I had a genius IQ. He wanted me to be a scientist, and thought I would be derailed. Since I couldn’t do it at school, I would force my siblings to be my audience and I’d perform my productions at home where I was a 1 woman show. So I grew up like that, I would see things and want to share them with the world but I was also good at Maths, Physics and Chemistry and that’s what the world respected. I studied, I did what I had to do, but during that time, something was eating me up from the inside. I wasn’t happy!

I graduated as a chemical engineer, mzee was happy – I think I was in the top 1% of my class. I remember when I got my degree, I gave it to him and said, “this is yours, not mine. But, I will also give you five years of my life because you spent so much money educating me. I will give you 5 to 10 years so that you do not think that your money was spent in vain.”

I got a job doing weapons research in New Mexico. We used to modify guns and weapons and I was part of the team that developed the Humvees that were used in the Iraqi war. We would go out into the desert and unleash them on cars like hell and see if they could withstand. I worked there for four years, and then I thought to myself, “this is boring.” I was earning a lot of money but it was boring!

So, one day we were in Walmart and this skinny guy is staring at me. He kept staring at me as I walked through the aisles and eventually, he came up to me and asked if I was an actress. I said, “No! And I don’t do porn (just to get it out of the way).” As I start to leave, he hands me his card and says, “go look me up, if you think I’m legit, call as soon as you can.”

I get home, and relay everything to my husband at the time. He looked at it and asked sternly, “Nina, do you know whose card this is?” I said, ” No.” “It’s Steve Jobs,” he replied. I don’t even know what he did so my husband pulled up his page and immediately, I saw the pictures I screamed, “That’s him! That’s the guy!”

We called, and guess what? They were launching the iPod and my look is exactly what they were looking for. I flew to Seattle by private jet with my husband, and became the dancing afro in their silhouette ad campaign. Once I did that, and the amount of money that came in, I said wait – I can give up science, do a 30-second commercial and earn money for the rest of my life? I’m done with this. I was sitting in the living room with my husband at the time, and I told him we’re going to Los Angeles. He asked, ” why?” I said, “because I’m going to become a star!”

Landing a Pepsi commercial

On my second day in LA, my friend Yvette and I headed out to this audition. There were all these beautiful women. I was the only black black person there, all of them were light-skinned, mixed or something like that. It was evident I wasn’t the face they were looking for, but ironically, this guy comes up to me and he’s like, “Honey”, I reply, “yes, sweetie?” And he’s like, “oh, she speaks with a British accent!” He immediately invites me into the audition room. The panellists look at me, and he’s like, “she’s the one! She’s the stripper! We are using this one!” So he asked for my manager, and of course I had none. I call Yvette and point at her. “That’s my manager.” Just like that, I landed the role of a stripper in a Pepsi commercial. I was suddenly the face of all these different brands, McDonalds, Dove, and many more.

CSI: New York

I got a call, they were looking for a dark skinned girl. At the time in Hollywood, it was just me and a girl called Lupita Nyon’go, I was way older than her though. It was CSI:New York, they wanted a Haitian voodoo priestess. I had never been to Haiti – I didn’t even know how Haitians spoke. I ended up in this room, lying to them that I was from Port-au-Prince, that my mother was Haitian and even made up an accent. I remember walking out of there and thinking, “ndi mufere (I’m a con-woman)”. But, I did what anyone would have done to get an audience.

I didn’t hear from them at all for like a month. Then I get a call, that they were sending me the script via DHL. I was going to play Josephine Delacroix and I’m like, what who is this? And they are like, CSI:New York. “Sike, you’re lying,” and I hung up. She calls again and says, “if you hung up again, we will not use you. Focus!” I ended up doing CSI:New York for like a season.

A Meltdown

After Star Trek, I realised I was pregnant and did not want my daughter to grow up in the US, confused. And then after that, my husband died. I had a meltdown, I picked up my daughter’s diaper bag and left. I left everything of his as it was in the house; his coffee cup, everything. I called my mother when I was at Heathrow in transit, and I told her, “mum I can’t do it anymore, I’m coming home.” I only went back to pick up his ashes because he wanted them to be scattered across Lake Victoria, and I’ve never been to the United States since then. I remember sleeping a lot, trying to figure out how to take care of my daughter as a widow at 30!

Back to Kampala

When I got here, DSTV had just launched. Nigerian movies had suddenly captured the hearts of Ugandans. Mummy would sit on a ‘Ki-Nigeria,’ from morning, she didn’t even understand some of the Yoruba words, she just loved the idea that she could see a reflection of herself on the screen, in the people and their stories. I waited and waited for Ugandan content, there was none. I was like, wait, do we have an inability to tell stories or are we just being bypassed? What I discovered was a very fascinating thing!

Ugandans are the very people that ridicule their own story tellers. We will invest in making the Black Panther, but won’t watch ‘The Blind Date’, that short film by Lukman Ali, a Ugandan film maker. We won’t go and actively support it on YouTube so he can get paid. However, when ‘Coming to America’ gets on Netflix, we will pay the dollars to watch it. Our vision of ourselves is so distorted that we are uncomfortable with delving a little deeper into who we are.

‘The Life’

I sat down after a long night as you know, I do love a good party, I put pen to paper and wrote an entire script in about 4 hours. I called it ‘The Life’. That night, I had gone to Club Silk, Chameleon and Bebe Cool were doing silly things, fighting and breaking tables. It felt like a bid for attention – like we had to get them attention, so I said alright, and I wrote something inspired by that.

Later, I called up a few friends to make the project happen. We did ‘The Life’, with the smallest budget ever. I had a car, an Isuzu, with my Canon 5D at the time. My lead actor was also my DOP, like the entire situation was laughable! But it was one of the most beautiful experiences I have ever had. We were naive, we were dreamers, we felt like we were Hollywood. We had a premiere at Gatto Matto, did cocktails and a red carpet, it was exciting for people in Kampala.

I knew that the movie itself was shit, the quality was shit, but I had proven a point. We could tell a story. We didn’t need a big budget. And out of the blue I get a call from MNet, they wanted to buy ‘The Life’. I asked, “how did you know about it?” They said, “Someone was at the premiere, they took photos and a small video and we used it – “I said, “wait, you used my footage without paying for it?” and they started to quake. They said, “no, no, but we are buying it..” They gave me a cheque and I was floored! This film that I was ready to put on the shelf just to prove that I could do it, actually made me money? If I thought it was shit but they thought oh we can put this on our network… it was almost validation!

Tullow Oil

As I was still debating what to do; whether I should continue making movies, and then I get a call. They had just discovered oil in Uganda, and my background was suitable for petroleum engineering. The government was like, well, you’re Ugandan too. I signed to Tullow Oil as a subsurface engineer for 8 years.

Oil is one of the biggest assets this country will ever have. When you have the technical and scientific knowhow to contribute to something that your country has, it is a shame if you dont, because they will bring in a foreigner. At the time, the experience I had, was like a loan, if you didn’t do it right, they would replace you. I wanted to be in the position that if I wanted to fight for another Ugandan to get a job, I would. The more foreigners that rule our assets, the more we are locked out.

After 8 years there, I felt like I had done my time. I tend to cut off after 8 years I don’t know why. So I walked away and my parents were flabbergasted, how I could leave a profitable job where I would travel first class! I was making a lot of money. A lot. But with that job also came loneliness. You travel a lot, the oil industry is not built for women, it’s a man’s world. To be a subsurface engineer, I would go to conferences in Dubai and they’d say, “Engineer Kagga is going to deal with power.” They would wait for Engineer Kagga. I would walk into the room slaying with my afro, 6 inch heels and red nails. It felt like I was the assistant to Engineer Kagga, because they thought you cannot be female, take care of yourself, and have a brain.

‘Beneath The Lies’

While at Tullow, I wrote ‘Beneath The Lies’. The idea was – What would happen if we did a quality series with Ugandan celebrities. At the time, when I calculated the cost of marketing content, it was such a big expense. In order to make a quality production I had to compromise on marketing, so I thought of a vehicle to carry the series. If I brought Flavia Tumusiime with her following, Hellen Lukoma with her following, Gaetano Kaggwa with his following, I didn’t need to market that, just them being a group, tells you about the force of numbers. And, indeed, they brought the city to its knees with publicity. Everyone knew Beneath the Lies before it came, simply because I lined everyone up, not because of their acting ability at the time, it was their work ethic. For them to have gotten to where they were, they had to have discipline. For 6 weeks we were going to live together, read the scripts and also learn to act. I worked with them, I held workshops, it was intense, it was crazy, because I took medical leave from Tullow for two months. So we did, and Beneath The Lies came.

Another big lesson

The mistake we made was thinking our Ugandan people did not have the skillset to put together a production. Being the colonised minds that we are, we went to Kenya. We got these Kenyan producers who messed the project up. They shot it, then destroyed it because at the time, they were also submitting something to MNet. They had to sabotage us! I remember thinking I was done. My bank account was empty, I had invested a lot in the project. I had gotten investors; it was money that Cedric Babu and I had taken from our personal savings. At the end of it, we had no footage and no money. It was almost as if the production had never existed. It was a dark time. I kept wondering where I had gone wrong, only one episode had aired…

It was the most traumatic moment ever, of course, apart from losing my first husband. Because you wake up wondering how or why someone would do that to you!

Cedric and I sat down and agreed to save 5k every day, and at the end of the year we would re-shoot. This happened! We shot six episodes, handed them to Urban TV, and it aired. The irony of it is, these 6 episodes landed us a nomination for ‘Best series’ at the AMVCA’s. I remember thinking – if six episodes got us to the AMVCA’s, what would happen if we had an all-Ugandan crew? I went back to the drawing board, and started finding people. And these kids came and did the job with such humility and gratitude. It was embarrassing for Cedric and I who had been running around looking for Kenyans, who, apparently had the formula to quality.

Failed marriage

I left Tullow at the time when my second marriage was crumbling. It’s hard for us African women to admit that we have failed; to leave a job that most people would kill for, and also walk out of a marriage which people thought I was losing out on. The truth is – I was unhappy! I was doing reckless things; like I would go to Acacia Mall and buy tons of makeup that I didn’t need. I’d go La Patisserie just to feel like I was living. I had a life, but I just felt like something was missing, and I knew what it was. I just needed to be able to tell stories. I am a paradox – I like glam but I’m also a loner.

I knew that the life I was living with my husband was not mine. I had struggled to fit in a neat box that society would accept but I know that I’ve always been different. I realised that nobody cared, and no one really cares what kind of life you live as long as you don’t embarrass them in their eyes of opinion. I realised that the only person who could probably fix this was me.

After I quit my job, I took my pension and built a house on a hill where my children could have a place to live. We may not have food but we have a roof over our heads. I never wanted them to not have the security of a home. I had already dealt with divorcing their father, who never wanted anything to do with me or them. I understood his anger, but I do not subscribe to the idea that if the marriage isn’t working, you should stay for the kids. One day he’ll wake up and remember his kids, but in the meantime, I have to take care of them, and make sure that they have memories with their mother.

Then I opened up Chloe’s closet because I’ve always loved vintage. I feel like I was born in the wrong era. I love the 70s vibe, we’re all about the funk. I wondered how to combine the two things I love which are fashion and film.

Ironically, life is funny, a friend of mine came to visit and told me, “Nana, do you remember when you were in LA, you lent me $10,000?” I said I don’t remember. He said, “Yeah you did, so I have your money.” Just like that. And seriously, he put the money in the account, I thought he was joking. I remember sitting to myself and thinking wow, there is a God. That same day, I got a call from the Screen Actors Guild. They told me that they had my residuals. During all that time I had been in Hollywood, I had forgotten about my residuals. They told me how much they had to transfer to my account and I was in utter shock. For 3 years I hadn’t collected any of my money, and Star Trek plays everywhere, CSI: New York, A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy had been bought by Miramax, Life on NBC was playing… There were like 6 projects. As well as the commercials.

Mela

Now that I had enough funds, I did ‘Mela’. When Mela had just aired, Covid hit. Urban TV was going to commission it, but hesitated after the pandemic hit because they had no money. After that, Pearl Magic said they were looking for a family show. Because of Covid and everything, I made a decision not to submit any scripts because we wouldn’t be able to shoot.

Prestige

While I was there, Nathan Magoola called me and said he needed to see me. He found a way to come to see me, and told me that he had a role for me. He said, “Nana, I know you retired from infront of the camera, but I need you to sell this project. Everyone I give this role to says only Nana can do it, you won’t find anyone else.” So he sent me the script, and the character Jazmine was unhinged.

I wondered – why does everyone think that I can do this role, do they think I am unhinged? I called everyone, and in a few days, we had a whole team of cast and crew. We shot the pilot in lockdown.
We submitted the pilot to Pearl Magic at 5:30 on a Tuesday, they called us back at 5:45 and said they would take 100 episodes.

Suddenly, Pearl Magic Prime has so many new subscribers because of the 2 leading shows which are Sanyu and Prestige. A lot of people actually love Jazmine. Yesterday, I was at a Kwanjula (traditional wedding) and felt weird because I thought people were looking at me, only for them to say, “Munange akazanyo katukolera (we’re loving the TV series)”.

The challenges are still many though; I’ve been in this industry for about 15 years! We always knew we could do this if someone invested in us. We, however, have no crew base. The two really good crews are working on ‘Prestige’or ‘Sanyu’. We also have no actor-base, they are shuffled between projects.

Playing ‘Jazmine’

I enjoy playing ‘Jazmine’. I totally understand why she’s unhinged. There are kids who are scared of me, because of the role. The other day a kid was pointing at me, scared in the supermarket, and her mom had to say, “no, she’s an actress!”

It’s also such a honour for me to work with all the local talent here. Having me around them is a great resource. They come to me a lot before scenes and we talk through them, or whenever they feel like it’s not working. Acting is sometimes about referring to the pain you have suffered, pulling the ugly out and bringing it to life. A lot of people are uncomfortable to get in touch with the trauma they have suffered, or even the joys. These are powerful tools.

The Afro

For this shoot, my real afro is under this big one. I’m all about drama, I think life should be a production. And you should be the star of it. Right from when I was a child, I was different from my siblings, and from everyone around me. When you recognise that as a person you don’t fit in, you start to realise that everything about you makes people uncomfortable.

I realised that looking for people to accept or love you is a complete waste of time, that one I actually understood when I was about 22. Even the parents who give birth to you will never understand certain facets of you. They don’t even want to understand it, however much you try to explain.

Secret to her ageless beauty

Never try to be what anyone else wants you to be, ever! Learn that! You will pass through life happy, while laughing your way through. Society has a way of killing each one of us off systematically, and if they don’t understand you, they have to label you something.

Prestige airs Monday to Friday at 8:30pm on Pearl Magic Prime channel 148 on DSTV.