032 Remi Adeleke

About this video

Mike Ritland interviews Remi Adeleke, a former Navy SEAL, actor, writer, and minister. Adeleke recounts his journey from a privileged early childhood in Nigeria to poverty in the Bronx after his father’s death, and how hip-hop culture, film, and ultimately faith shaped his path to the SEAL Teams. He discusses his work as a military advisor and actor in Michael Bay films, his writing projects, and the parallels between his upbringing and his current life.

Key takeaways

• Adeleke credits his mother for shielding him and his brother from the harsh reality of their father’s death and subsequent poverty, maintaining their resilience through difficult circumstances.
• Hip-hop culture served as a surrogate father figure for Adeleke growing up in the Bronx, providing both positive motivation (the hustler mentality) and negative influences he later had to redirect appropriately.
• The films ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘The Rock’ were pivotal in transforming Adeleke’s anti-authority worldview and inspiring him to pursue a military career, eventually leading to his own work as an advisor and actor in Michael Bay films.
• Adeleke attributes his life trajectory to divine guidance, noting the surreal foreshadowing of being inspired by Michael Bay films and later working in them himself.

Episode details: published May 3, 2019 · 94.6K views · 1:59:50 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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