Gbola was born in Nigeria and schooled in England, and somewhere between the two became the boy always cast as lead or supporting lead. School plays, church productions — if a part had a name, it usually had his. The instinct never left, though it spent years sharing a diary with an MBA and a career in information technology.

He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Ivana Chubbuck’s studios in Hollywood and London, and now sits in Tier 1 — the top class — at Identity School of Acting, whose alumni include John Boyega, Letitia Wright and Damson Idris.

He brings distinct layers to soldiers, surgeons and smugglers — and to what they don’t say out loud. Years of Shotokan and Taekwondo still live in the way he moves: his reformed assassin Hieronymous Burton, in the John Wick series The Continental, won an additional scene written into the show. Other credits include Beneath the Shadows, Bridget Jones’s Baby and Lie of You. He has since written his own political action series.

He works in English and Yoruba, and between RP, London, American and Nigerian accents. Off set he dances: salsa, bachata, whatever the room is playing.