I was born Benjamin Alfred Onyango Ochieng in Nairobi Kenya to parents Christopher and Eudiah Ochieng Ngesa. I moved to the US in 1987 to attend College. I studied Computer Science at California State University, Stanislaus in the small town of Turlock, California. In 1992 I graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science (BSC), After about three years of odd jobs in Turlock, I left my wife Elizabeth and daughter Ida (4 years old then), and my hard rock band "High Voltage" and moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in Music and Film.
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| Benjamin Ochieng(Kenyan Actor) aka Benji Bendrix Based In Los Angeles |
I believed that the degree I had just earned would be something to fall back on in case the career move I now sought backfired. My wife and I agreed that they would follow me to Los Angeles after I had found something stable and settled down. Being an avid fan of guitar virtuoso Jimi Hendrix, I coined the name Benji Bendrix and joined a funk rock group "The Passing" as a funk bassist The group later changed its name to "P.F.O. but broke up after two CD Albums and too many drummer drama."
In 1995 I signed up with Cenex West, Inc. and its sister company "Central Casting". Together these two are the largest "extras casting"company in Los Angeles.Cenex deals with non-union actors and Central Casting deals with union extras. They got me work as an extra (background actor) in the movies and television.
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For the next five years I worked as an extra in more than 60 shows on TV and 30 or so movies. Being a background worker is a little heartbreaking sometimes because after spending so many hours on the set, there is zero chance that you will even be seen after the film or TV show is completed. It was hard to convince my friends that I was in a movie because every time they went to see it I would be nowhere. The money wasn't that bad so I kept on working and believed that I would get a speaking role some day. I kept the faith so to speak. I kept hope alive.I was doing something I loved so I didn't mind it that much.
In 1999, I got my first break when I went to work on an episode of The X-Files. I told the Assistant Director (AD) I could speak Swahili and that was the beginning of the turn around for me I had tried this before in other shows but it never got me anywhere. This day on the set of The X-Files it did.. They bumped me up from the extra role I had gone for to a principal day player. They also enrolled me immediately in the Screen Actors Guild union (SAG). For the next three days of the shoot I was treated very well. I had a trailer of my own for changing, got the entire script, hang out on the set with the star Gillian Anderson etc. It was the beginning of good things to come....