Starring in an independent film is a dream for many African Americans, but Josef Cannon thought that his status as a first-grade schoolteacher with a speech impediment would keep him from the big screen. But an unlikely series of events and his own perseverance led to Cannon turning his original writing role into an acting job for a Civil Rights-era film.
Cannon is an unlikely schoolteacher-turned-actor who overcame a speech impediment to get started in Hollywood. While working as a first-grade teacher at St. Aloysius Catholic School, Cannon taught the children of actors Damon Wayans and Mario Van Peebles, who encouraged Cannon to get into acting.
