Abraham Attah has gone from a 14-year-old Ghanaian street vendor to playing the lead role in Netflix's first original narrative feature, "Beasts of No Nation."
But his literal life-changing experience goes beyond that.
Along with gaining acclaim for his explosive performance as a young boy who is suddenly part of a group of guerrilla soldiers in the midst of a civil war in an unidentified African country, Attah has begun to receive schooling, and Netflix is paying the bill.
"Ted Sarandos has said that he would pay for [Attah's] private education through senior year of high school," "Beasts of No Nation" director Cary Fukunaga told Business Insider of the generosity provided by Netflix's head of content acquisitions.
Earlier this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, Fukunaga explained at a talk that following filming, they enrolled Attah into a boarding school in Ghana, admitting that when he was chosen to play the lead, he had little education.
Fukunaga gave an update recently to BI on Attah's progression.
"Technically he's in 7th grade, but I think there's a lot to be caught up on including reading comprehension, and that's essential to his script reading if he wants to do more acting in the future," Fukunaga said. "We found a private school that starts in the 7th grade, a lot of the private schools don't start until 8th or 9th grade. And it's a school that can cater to his specific needs and help him get caught up."
Fukunaga said that Attah is currently being home-schooled while doing the press tour for "Beasts." He also mentioned that Attah has already been cast in his next project. (Netflix declined to comment for this story.)
"He got hit with the golden goose," Fukunaga said of Attah's new life.
Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, CEO of Business Insider's parent company, Axel Springer, is a Netflix board member.
