Ngugi wa Thiong'o is an award-winning novelist, playwright, and essayist from Kenya whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages. He lives in Irvine, California, where he is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.

Benjamin A. Onyango has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science from California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock, California. After graduating in 1992, he relocated to Hollywood, California, to pursue a career in music and acting and an occasional crack at standup comedy. His TV credits include The Wives (Kenya), General Hospital, The Shield, and The X-Files. His film credits include Senior Year, Beautifully Broken, God's Not Dead 1, 2, 3, and 4, Freshman Year, The Boy, Father Africa, Default, Kwame, in which he won a 2009 Best Actor Award, Chains, and Tears of the Sun. His knowledge of and fluency in the Swahili language has landed him voice acting and ADR roles in many Hollywood films, including The Unbreakable Sword, The Last Face, Furious 7, Constantine, Night at the Museum 1 and 3, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Machine Gun Preacher, Inception, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Primeval, Path to 911, and A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and the video games Resident Evil V and Mass Effect 3. His commercial credits include Pringles and Jardiance. His business, Substitute Teachers Placement Services, Inc., employs teachers and teacher assistants for assignment to special education Schools to work with children on the Autism spectrum.