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A photograph of David Proud holding a camera and making a thumbs up sign.  He is in an Outdoor location.

David Proud on the set of Special People

Featured Ambassador

We are delighted to welcome David Proud as one of our Accentuate Ambassadors.  Many of you may know him as his BBC EastEnders character, Adam Best.  David is an English actor who was born with spina bifida and uses a wheelchair. He only began his acting career during his early twenties, having previously believed that it would be impossible for him to have a career in that field. His first professional acting role was as a wheelchair basketball player in the children's TV series Desperados.  

David was picked by BBC producer Ewan Marshall to play one of the leads in the 2007 CBBC series Desperados, a children's drama starring the paralympic wheelchair basketball player Ade Adepitan. As David had not had any drama training since leaving school, the BBC sent him for coaching to prepare him for television work. In the series he played Charlie Johnson, a mixed-up teenager—although David was 23 at the time—dealing with the impact of becoming paralysed by a spinal injury suffered during a school football match. Charlie enters the world of wheelchair basketball, after being persuaded to join the "Desperados" team by their coach, Baggy Awolowo (Adepitan).

Since Desperados, David has obtained the services of a mainstream agent and has gone on to be involved in various other projects. He co-presented an episode of the BBC Three documentary series Mischief, 'Is it cos I is Black', in 2007. He appeared as the character Blake in the second series of ITV's Secret Diary of a Call Girl in 2008.

 

David is supportive of Accentuate as a whole, but is specifically interested in our project uScreen. 

Only last week, 18th May, David took the role of interviewer in a short 5 minute film commissioned by Screen South for the uScreen website on How To Do Audio Description, one of the many features available on the new uScreen website. The How to Guide is currently being edited ready for the launch of the site in July 2010.  David is going to be a mentor for young people through the uScreen site.

“I am passionate about opening up the industry to more disabled people.  Opportunities that encourage disabled film makers, actors and directors should be supported and I am really excited to see how the ground breaking Uscreen site will develop.”

“It is essential that we get more disabled people visible and on the screen.  I am excited by what Accentuate is trying to achieve –  a cultural shift across the board and I think part of this has to be about engaging the media and film industries”


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