About Prentice Onayemi
Prentice Onayemi’s lyrical style and selective narration choices have quickly set him apart as a major talent in the audiobook world. Among his best loved performances are all of author Paul Beatty’s audiobooks, including The Sellout, which won a Man Booker Prize and earned Onayemi recognition as an Audie Award finalist for Best Fiction narrator.
Onayemi is drawn to interesting narration projects and promising literary debuts. In 2016, he performed Imbolo Mbue’s acclaimed debut novel Behold the Dreamers about a young Cameroonian couple making ends meet in New York when the 2008 recession hits. The same year, he was in the award-winning multi-cast performance of Christodora, a debut novel by Tim Murphy featuring an eclectic mix of characters in Manhattan’s East Village. More recently, he performed 2017’s Beasts Made of Night by debut author Tochi Onyebuchi, a Nigerian-influenced fantasy about a 17-year-old with dark magical powers. Prentice Onayemi’s performances are praised as vivid, haunting, and able to depict different cultural worlds within a single story.
Before he started performing audiobooks, Prentice Onayemi first found voice-over work narrating English language learning programs. He holds a BFA in Drama from NYU and has also become known for his performances in downtown NYC passion projects and Broadway mainstays. On the screen, you might have seen him in the hit series House of Cards.
Onayemi’s creative pursuits dovetail with his business ventures. A graduate of Columbia University’s MBA program, he’s co-founded a performing arts venue in Brooklyn, NY, and a nonprofit that develops creative self-expression workshops for survivors of armed conflicts and natural disasters. He has also worked on research studies and policy recommendations to develop the performing arts in Queens, NY, and has co-authored case studies about artists as social entrepreneurs for Harvard Business Review. His latest project is Grains of Salt, an organization that helps creatives strike a balance between art and contributing to societal development.
Listener Favorites
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Behold the Dreamers
- A Novel
- By: Imbolo Mbue
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself; his wife, Neni; and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty - and Jende is eager to please. Clark's wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses' summer home in the Hamptons.
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Overhyped
- By Rochelle on 08-27-16
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The Sellout
- A Novel
- By: Paul Beatty
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality: the black Chinese restaurant.
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Appreciated it, but didn't like it
- By Eugenia on 04-14-16
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Beasts Made of Night
- By: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj's livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family. When Taj is called to eat a sin of a member of the royal family, he's suddenly thrust into the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy Kos.
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Amazing narrator and worldbuilding
- By Jesse on 07-18-20
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New Boy
- William Shakespeare's Othello Retold: A Novel
- By: Tracy Chevalier
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Arriving at his fifth school in as many years, diplomat's son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day - so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can't stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players - teachers and pupils alike - will never be the same again.
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Disappointed
- By Olga Rozzell on 07-15-21
-
Behold the Dreamers
- A Novel
- By: Imbolo Mbue
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself; his wife, Neni; and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty - and Jende is eager to please. Clark's wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses' summer home in the Hamptons.
-
-
Overhyped
- By Rochelle on 08-27-16
-
The Sellout
- A Novel
- By: Paul Beatty
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality: the black Chinese restaurant.
-
-
Appreciated it, but didn't like it
- By Eugenia on 04-14-16
-
Beasts Made of Night
- By: Tochi Onyebuchi
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Taj is the most talented of the aki, young sin-eaters indentured by the mages to slay the sin-beasts. But Taj's livelihood comes at a terrible cost. When he kills a sin-beast, a tattoo of the beast appears on his skin while the guilt of committing the sin appears on his mind. Most aki are driven mad by the process, but 17-year-old Taj is cocky and desperate to provide for his family. When Taj is called to eat a sin of a member of the royal family, he's suddenly thrust into the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy Kos.
-
-
Amazing narrator and worldbuilding
- By Jesse on 07-18-20
-
New Boy
- William Shakespeare's Othello Retold: A Novel
- By: Tracy Chevalier
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 5 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Arriving at his fifth school in as many years, diplomat's son Osei Kokote knows he needs an ally if he is to survive his first day - so he's lucky to hit it off with Dee, the most popular girl in school. But one student can't stand to witness this budding relationship: Ian decides to destroy the friendship between the black boy and the golden girl. By the end of the day, the school and its key players - teachers and pupils alike - will never be the same again.
-
-
Disappointed
- By Olga Rozzell on 07-15-21