His dad discovered/founded Banana Island. Remi was born into riches in Nigeria to a Nigerian father and an American mother, but following the death of his father and the unjust seizing of his family’s wealth by the Nigerian Government, Remi, his mother, and brother permanently relocated to the Bronx, New York in 1987 at age 5.
“That’s where my American journey began,” Adeleke tells PEOPLE. “And it didn’t start off well.”
At 8 years old, he began to steal, and when he went to high school, he began selling drugs and running a fake sneaker business.
“By the time I was 19, I was bringing in thousands and thousands of dollars,” he recalls. “I was using that money to fund a record company because that was my dream.”
It took Adeleke getting into a “very bad deal with a drug dealer” who showed up at his apartment and threatened both his life and his mother’s for him to “wake up and change everything”.
He vowed that very night to leave his rough and dangerous life in the past. For the next six months, he thought hard about what to do next.
“I decided to join the military,” says Adeleke. “I finally came to the realization that I had nothing left. I had failed at everything in my mind. I had failed at my record company, I had failed at selling drugs, I failed at all of these things and I was like, ‘What else do you have left, Remi? You have absolutely nothing left.’ I had to hit rock bottom first.”
At the recruiter’s office, he met Tiana Reyes, a woman who would change his life forever. When she ran a background check on him, she saw he had two warrants out for his arrest.
“I tried to bolt out of there because I knew I wouldn’t be able to join the military now,” he says, “but she asked me where I was going and if I had a suit.”
Adeleke told her no, but that he did have nice pants and a shirt. Reyes said to come back the next day.
When Adeleke showed up, she took him to a judge in New York and a judge in New Jersey and advocated on his behalf.
“She told the judge that I had made mistakes, but that I was trying to join the military,” says Adeleke. “Tiana asked him if he could give me a chance and expunge my record so I could enlist.” Both judges unanimously said yes.
“They said what I was doing was an act of patriotism and if that Tiana could vouch for me, then they would say okay,” he recalls.
After years of making regrettable decisions, Remi enlisted in the Navy in 2002, serving as a corpsman with 1st Marine Division and later joined the Navy SEALs where he specialized in combat medicine and HUMINT (Human Intelligence/tradecraft). Ending his successful naval career in 2016, he was led to pursue opportunities in film/tv consulting, directing writing, and acting, including the 2017 franchise film Transformers: The Last Knight, SEAL Team CBS, the Universal thriller directed by Michael Bay, Ambulance, and the Lionsgate blockbuster The Plane. Remi can also be seen in a recurring role on Amazon’s TV adaptation of the New York Times Best Seller Terminal List. As a consultant Remi worked on Netflix’s 6 Underground, Apple+ TV series Invasion. Remi is the host and Co-EP of the Down Range narrative Podcast, which will be distributed via Tenderfoot TV/iHeart Media in January 2023.
Additionally, Remi is one of the hosts of the UK hit series, Who Dares Wins and it’s U.S. derivative Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. As a filmmaker, Remi wrote and directed The Unexpected, which is a 32-minute short film that uncovers an international organ harvesting ring. In addition to the short he has written and will be directing the feature length version of the short, titled, Unexpected Redemption. As a screenwriter Remi co-penned the adapted teleplay for Slave Stealers, which highlights abolitionist, Harriet Jacobs.
He also wrote The Chameleon screenplay and finally The Last Shall Be First screenplay, which tells the untold true story of the first group of African Americans to serve in U.S. Special Forces and the integral but forgotten role they played in the retaking of South Korea from Communist forces. Mr. Adeleke holds a bachelors in organizational leadership and an masters in Organizational Strategy, both from the University of Charleston West Virginia. As an educator he co-founded Muskegon Michigan’s OPS academy that opens to inner city students K-8th in Fall of 2022.
Remi’s incredible story can be found in his HarperCollins bestselling autobiography, Transformed: A Navy SEALs Unlikely Journey From The Throne Of Africa, To The Streets Of The Bronx, To Defying All Odds.
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