Remi Adeleke is already an completed actor and author, somebody you might need seen on the Amazon Prime Video sequence, “The Terminal Checklist.” Viewers of his earlier work, nevertheless, noticed a really totally different facet of him, in the event that they noticed him in any respect.
Adeleke joined the Navy in 2002 as a corpsman, after which grew to become a Navy SEAL, working in human intelligence. This implies he labored sources, collected and vetted info, and used that intelligence in opposition to different intelligence.
He instructed the true story of his life in his first e-book, “Remodeled: A Navy SEAL’s Unlikely Journey from the Throne of Africa, to the Streets of the Bronx, to Defying All Odds.” It is a lengthy title, however there’s so much to inform. Adeleke was born in Nigeria, got here to New York Metropolis. at age 5 and finally fell into dealing medication within the Bronx.
His new e-book, “Chameleon,” is loosely primarily based on his personal life, however this time he makes use of fiction to elaborate on what he did within the SEAL groups, with out utilizing specifics that will give away labeled info.
“It is a fictional extension of my memoir, ‘Remodeled,'” Adeleke tells Navy.com. “All of the issues that I could not discuss in ‘Remodeled,’ I fictionalized and created this fictional world with fictional characters and fictional occasions so as to have the ability to inform extra of my story, however in a fictional method.”
Storytelling has been an enormous a part of Adeleke’s life, and it is what led him to turn out to be an actor and author after leaving the Navy. He spent his younger life watching motion pictures that confirmed him the probabilities life may supply him, as an alternative of working on the street.
“Once I was about 15, I noticed a film known as ‘Unhealthy Boys,'” he says.”That started to alter my perspective so far as what I might be as a result of I noticed these two guys who seemed like me and got here from the place I got here from, however they maintained that very same swagger. It confirmed me that I may keep who I’m and be a hero. I haven’t got to proceed promoting medication.”
“A 12 months later, I got here throughout a movie known as ‘The Rock,’ and that was my first publicity to Navy SEALs. I instructed myself if I ever flip my life round, that is what I might do: I would be a frogman.”
Younger Adeleke would run into some hassle together with his work on the road, and to keep away from ending up within the hospital (or worse), he turned to the Navy. The recruiter labored with a choose to get his priors and warrants expunged so he may turn out to be a sailor.
Now, as an alternative of merely seeing himself in a fictional character, Adeleke is placing his actual life right into a fictional character of his personal creation.
In “Chameleon,” Kali Browder Kent is a Nigerian-born and New York Metropolis-raised member of the CIA’s Black Field program, on the hunt for a former South African commando named Lucas Van Groot. Van Groot is taking rich hostages for ransom, however the hostage enterprise is a entrance for a a lot larger scheme: manipulating inventory markets and bringing the worldwide economic system to its knees.
A Black Field Chameleon like Kent is aware of a number of abilities, just about remodeling into myriad characters. They’re specialists in stealth and surveillance, transportation and aberration, who can keep a deep cowl for years on finish. He’ll want all of these abilities to trace Van Groot and stop a worldwide tragedy.
“Followers of the espionage world who love a great motion thriller and are intrigued by grounded, genuine storytelling will like it,” Adeleke says. “Children and adults who might come from the place I got here from and by no means noticed themselves in this kind of mild will likely be excited a few grounded character who comes from the place they arrive from.”
Readers who love “Chameleon” can even be excited to study that the e-book is a prequel to a movie brief, “Chameleon: Black Field,” which was produced in 2022.
“The e-book actually allowed me to increase not simply on the world, however on the story and on the characters in a method that I could not within the screenplay,” Adeleke says. “And it makes the story and the characters richer.”
“Chameleon: Black Field” will itself be tailored right into a novel, as e-book No. 2 within the sequence. Till that e-book’s launch, readers can choose up a replica of “Chameleon” on bookshelves in all places on July 25, 2023. To study extra about Remi Adeleke, his life and “Chameleon,” go to the HarperCollins web site.
— Blake Stilwell may be reached at blake.stilwell@army.com. He will also be discovered on Fb, Twitter, or on LinkedIn.
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