Career
At around 10, Osei took part in the first series of the British dance competition ‘Got to Dance,’ originally titled ‘Just Dance.’ The show was aired on Sky 1 in the UK and Ireland. The auditions of its premiere series took place in London, Manchester and Edinburgh during October 2009. The competition was held in January-February 2010 with Davina McCall as presenter and Ashley Banjo, Adam Garcia, and Kimberly Wyatt as judges.
On February 14, 2010, Osei left behind other contestants, including Matthew Koon, The Box, Emily, MJ Latin, and Jukebox Juniors, to emerge as the winner of the first series of ‘Got to Dance’ earning a prize money of £100,000.
Following this success and early recognition, he stepped into the world of acting. He featured as Dancing Kid in ‘Shopping Mall’ along with George Sampson and members of the dance groups ‘Diversity’ and ‘Flawless’ in the British 3D dance comedy-drama film ‘StreetDance 3D,’ also known as ‘StreetDance.’
Osei featured in the music video of the eleventh overall single of the British hip hop group ‘N-Dubz’ titled ‘We Dance On,’ which released on May 20, 2010. The song was marked as the lead single of the group’s third studio album, ‘Love.Live.Life,’ and also included as the second single of the soundtrack of the film ‘StreetDance 3D.’
‘StreetDance 3D’ released on May 21, 2010, in the UK. It emerged as the highest grossing UK production released that year earning £11 million at the box-office against a budget of £3.5 million.
During mid-2010, he featured on the British children's TV program ‘Blue Peter.’ That year, he also featured in a commercial for ‘Ministry of Sound Street Dance CD’ as well as in the ‘Streets Ahead’ annual dance show in ‘London 2010,’ where several dance crews and schools featured.
The music video of the song ‘Unorthodox ‘ by English hip hop artist ‘Wretch 32’ that had vocals from British recording artist ‘Example’ featured cameos from Osei, singer Yasmin and rappers Chipmunk and Scorcher. Directed by Ben Newman and first released on YouTube on March 1, 2011, the music video featured Osei dancing on a rooftop.
He essayed the role of Talent Show Contestant in the Nick Moore directed British 3D children's adventure comedy film ‘Horrid Henry: The Movie,’ which released in the UK on July 29, 2011 and in the US and Canada on December 22, 2012. Marked as the first British children’s film shot in 3D, the film garnered $10.1 million worldwide.
He appeared as a judge of the Disney Channel talent show called ‘Shake It Up Dance Dance’ in July 2011. That year, he received the ‘Young Achiever Award’ at the ‘BEFFTA Awards.’
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The sequel of ‘StreetDance 3D,’ titled ‘StreetDance 2,’ a 3D British dance drama film that released on March 30, 2012, in the UK, featured him in the role of Junior.
In 2013, he appeared in episode 61 of the first season of the British lifestyle show ‘Whats Cooking?.’ That year, he landed up with the lead role of Jaden in the Ben Gregor directed British film ‘All Stars,’ also called ‘StreetDance: All Stars.’ The film also featured Theo Stevenson and Ashley Jensen in starring roles.
He started playing the character of Nero Johnson, a series regular, in the British comedy drama and musical children's television series ‘4 O'Clock Club’ from series 3 of the show that premiered on December 20, 2013. His brilliant portrayal earned him a BAFTA award nomination for Best Children's Performer in 2014. He also featured in the regular cast of a spinoff of ‘4 O'Clock Club’ titled ‘4 O'Clock Files’ reprising the role of Nero Johnson. The show was aired on CBBC between December 14 and 19 in 2014.
His character of Nero in ‘4 O'Clock Club’ evolved into a main one from series 4 of the show, which started airing on January 28, 2015. The character was featured for the last time in episode 4 of series 7 of the show titled ‘Farewell’ that aired on February 14, 2018.
Meanwhile, the BAFTA award winning British entertainment TV program for children, ‘Friday Download,’ featured him as stand-in presenter (in studio) in its Series 8 that aired from October 4, 2014 to December 13, 2014 and as main presenter in Series 9 that was broadcast from April 25, 2015 to July 31, 2015.
In 2016, he featured as a contestant along with Isabel Clifton from Hetty Feather and Karim Zeroual and Hacker T Dog from CBBC HQ in the children's game show ‘Horrible Histories: Gory Games’ in its celebrity special episode that marked the 15th episode of series 4 of the program.
He played King Charles II in episode 8 of Season 3 of the British television comedy series ‘Drunk History’ in 2017.
He featured in Pied Piper – A Hip-Hop Dance Revolution, a street dance hip hop show by award-winning hip-hop dance company ‘Boy Blue Entertainment.’
He has also joined the hip hop/musical ‘Into the Hoods’ created by ZooNation, a London-based hip hop dance troupe.
