'Sunnyside' actor Samba Schutte relates to Hakim as he too moved to US from Ethiopia, reveals he worked on 'Star Wars' game [Exclusive]
NBC's 'Sunnyside' tells an interesting (and hilarious) story about the struggles of immigrants who have left behind the lives they lived in their home countries in search of the American Dream. The show has a very personal connection for Samba Schutte, who plays heart surgeon turned cab driver Hakim on the series, because he himself only moved to the U.S. eight years ago, having lived in Ethiopia till the age of 18.
"So Hakim is from Ethiopia," Schutte explained in an exclusive interview with MEA WorldWide (MEAWW). "And he's a heart surgeon back home, so he lived a really good life back home but he gave it up to move to America to make his dream come true. So now, he has to work as a cab driver because he can't get certified until he becomes a citizen to work as a doctor again. That's really relatable to me. I had a pretty good life in Ethiopia. A lot of people don't know this but Ethiopians, we have help around the house, people to help you cook, help you clean, and everything. So when I moved to America and people found out I came from Ethiopia they were like 'It must be so hard for you to move to America' and I'm like 'Hell, yeah! Here I gotta do everything by myself. Who's gonna do my dishes?' So I love that I'm playing a character that's authentic and very positive. He's the heart of the group, he makes people laugh, and he loves America, which is like me, I moved here eight years ago and I love this country. So I hope that this show shows that yes, we're immigrants, but at the same time, we're here because we have a dream and we want to make it come true."
Besides being an actor, Schutte is also a writer with an extensive list of projects on his resume, including a number of video games. Schutte revealed to us that he has also worked on a new game set in the 'Star Wars' universe, which will be coming out soon.
"I'm not technically allowed to say it," Schutte said, talking about his involvement with the game for the first time. "There's a big game coming that - I think George Lucas created that universe - so there's something that I did on there that's coming out in November."
Though he didn't reveal any further details about the upcoming project, Schutte has been credited as a performer on the upcoming 'Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order', which means that's probably the project he was talking about. He has also worked in the past with the hit games 'Call of Duty: Black Ops 4' and 'Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus'.
'Sunnyside' will be airing on NBC September 26 and stars Kal Penn, Kiran Deol and Joel Kim Booster, alongside Poppy Liu, Tudor Petrut, Samba Schutte, Diana Maria Riva and Moses Storm.
