Akala: rapper, author, public intellectual – and friend of Angelina Jolie?

Akala has been referred to as one of Britain’s few modern public intellectuals. Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Guardian

As the A-list stars assembled at the Venice film festival this autumn, there were few there more famous than Angelina Jolie, who generated Oscar buzz for her performance in Pablo Larraín’s biopic of Maria Callas.

But one of the most intriguing subplots didn’t take place on the big screen – in the audience at the film’s premiere, as a guest of Jolie, was Akala – the rapper, author and activist.