DRESSED in a chic outfit, with her bright red lips in a glowing smile, Angelina Jolie looks happier and more confident than she has in years.
After her very messy divorce from Brad Pitt, something is finally putting a smile on the 49-year-old actress’s face.
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And it may have a lot to do with Akala, a rapper, writer and activist from Kentish Town, North London, who is the brother of award-winning rapper Ms Dynamite — and rumoured to be the new man in Angelina’s life.
The Oscar-winning star, who is currently promoting her new film Maria, in which she plays opera singer Maria Callas, has told how navigating the 2016 break-up from Brad made her feel “smaller, almost insignificant” and “hurt”.
But Angelina, recently unveiled as the new face of Tom Ford Beauty, was beaming on the red carpet at the film’s Los Angeles premiere at the weekend as she debuted her stunning new curly hairdo.
It has been reported she has been secretly seeing Akala for at least a year, and last month even sneaked him into her London hotel, where they spent two nights, before attending the British Film Institute premiere of her new movie.
READ MORE ON ANGELINA JOLIE
Organised criminals
On paper, 40-year-old Akala — real name Kingslee McLean Daley — might seem like an unusual pairing for A-lister Angelina.
He had humble beginnings, growing up in a council house, surrounded by gang members, some of whom were from his own family.
But through his support for social justice causes, including the 2017 Grenfell Tower tragedy, he has found himself in Angelina’s orbit.
Both she and Akala — who has appeared in the annual Powerlist of the 100 most influential black British people — are well known for their philanthropy.
They first sparked romance rumours last year, when he joined Angelina and her daughters Zahara, 19, and Shiloh, 18, at the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica.
Then in August this year they were seen emerging from her hotel during the Venice International Film Festival, where Angelina’s new film received an eight-minute standing ovation.
The duo have been spotted at various events, including the New York Film Festival premiere of Maria in September, where Akala spent time with Angelina’s son Pax, 20.
A source has said: “They share the same passion when it comes to social and humanitarian causes.
“They did several collabs over the years that focus on global issues like human rights.
“Angie speaks very highly of him.”
Akala’s Scottish mother and Jamaican father separated before he was born, and he has described his upbringing as “the clichéd, single-parent working-class family”.
When he was just 12 he saw a friend attacked with a cleaver, prompting Akala to carry a knife himself for a time.
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Recalling the incident on his 2010 album DoubleThink, he said: “First time I saw knives penetrate flesh, it was meat cleavers to the back of the head.”
And in 2019 he said: “When you experience violence growing up, it changes something inside you.
“There was a period of my life where violence was the logical response to confrontation.
“As hard as I’ve tried, as much as I meditate, do yoga and do martial arts, I don’t feel that’s ever left me.”
But his mum encouraged him to work hard, and he reached the top of his class, taking a maths exam a year early and later getting ten GCSEs.
And he says his “gangster uncles” who were “organised criminals”, often in and out of prison, would reward him after school for his knowledge, including giving him a fiver for saying difficult words such as “Australopithecus”, an early ancestor of humans.
In 2021 Akala said: “They thought it was hilarious that a little kid could pronounce that word.
“They thought me being clever was cool, and that was really, really valuable.”
However, he has also been candid about the challenges he faced growing up as a mixed-race child.
In 2018 he recalled: “I was one of the smartest kids in the class but I was put in a special needs group because of a teacher who thought I was too bright for a working-class brown boy.
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“Fortunately, my mum was already sending me to Pan-African Society on Saturdays, so I’d learned to be prepared for this kind of discrimination.
“I had this armoury that could pick up on it and nip it in the bud and keep me in school.”
And in a 2021 interview he said: “I’m not saying it’s impossible for you to be successful if you’re born into a poor background in Britain.
“I’m saying the gargantuan effort it requires, and the hurdles you have to jump over, just make it incredibly unlikely.”
Despite scoring in the top one per cent of GCSE results, Akala dropped out of college and didn’t go to university.
But in 2018 he received an honorary doctorate from Brighton University and told graduates there: “I can’t lie, I often envy those of you who do get to go, people like you who are about to remake the world, or at least this country.
“That’s how serious these four years are.
Speaking up about race
“What will you do with the time you spent here and the education you have been privileged to be loaned by the rest of society?”
Not that Akala has missed out on achieving.
His first album, It’s Not A Rumour, was released in 2006 and won him a Mobo award for Best Hip Hop Artist.
Two more albums followed, including collaborating with Ms Dynamite, whose hit songs include It Takes More and Dy-Na-Mi-Tee.
In 2009 he founded The Hip-hop Shakespeare Company, a music theatre production company which combines the works of William Shakespeare with modern-day hip-hop artists, with the support of acting great Sir Ian McKellen.
Akala has since dedicated his career to speaking up about race, class and social issues.
In 2018 he published his best-selling book Natives: Race And Class In The Ruins Of Empire, which detailed his experiences as well as exploring factors that have shaped race and class in Britain.
He criticised officials after it emerged there was no main fire alarm or sprinklers in Grenfell Tower when it caught fire in June 2017, killing 72 people.
He said: “The people who died and lost their homes — this happened . . . because they are poor.
“We are in one of the richest spaces, not just in London but in the world.
I feel a bit down these days. I don’t feel like I’ve been myself for a decade
Angelina Jolie
“Repeated requests were ignored.
“There is no way that rich people would be living in a building without adequate fire safety.
“Everybody I spoke to couldn’t hear alarms, there was no sprinkler system.”
It seems Akala could be just what Angelina needs after a difficult few years following her acrimonious split from Brad, 60.
The former Hollywood golden couple, also parents to Maddox, 23, and twins Vivienne and Knox, 16, got together in 2004 after meeting on the set of spy thriller Mr & Mrs Smith and married in 2014.
She filed for divorce in 2016, accusing him of physically abusing her, including an alleged drunken attack on her and the children on a plane after a holiday in France.
Brad vehemently denied the claims at the time, and after an investigation no charges were made.
Angelina has been single since they split, while Brad has been dating jewellery designer Ines de Ramon since 2022, although divorce proceedings are still ongoing.
Last year Angelina told Vogue magazine that for seven years she had only taken acting roles that didn’t require long shoots, for her children’s sake.
She said: “I guess I’m in transition as a person.
“I feel a bit down these days.
“I don’t feel like I’ve been myself for a decade, in a way, which I don’t want to get into.”
She went on: “We had a lot of healing to do.
“We’re still finding our footing.”
She added that she wanted to “rediscover herself”, and continued: “I’m hoping to change many aspects of my life.”
And with a rumoured new man and her film, she appears to be doing just that.
