Shaun Escoffery

The name Escoffery is a famous one in UK black music: The Escofferys, Michelle Escoffery and of course there’s this guy called Shaun Escoffery as well…

It was actor and long time friend Idris Elba who convinced him that his future career lay in singing and acting. Best of mates in their teens, they both attended Barking & Dagenham College together, Idris studying performing arts, Shaun enrolling in an architectural course.

But his friend soon convinced Shaun that he should give it up and do what he really wanted to do and join him on the performing arts course. It wasn’t long before Shaun made his first impact singing on ‘Got To Find Me A Love’ with D’Influence in the early ’90s at the age of 17, having been writing songs since an early age and inspired by the music collection of his father, who also DJ’ed at dancehall & blues clubs.

“He introduced me to Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye..” says Shaun. His musical heritage doesn’t stop there as his mother was also in a lovers rock group alongside her cousin. Shaun continues, “they would gather together on a Sunday and write songs, so me and my sister were always in an environment of just music; there was always music playing in the house 24/7.”

Shaun later gained success in musical theatre roles, starring in West End shows including ‘Les Miserables’, ‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ and receiving a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for his work in the Parade. Sice 2011, he has played Mufasa in the Tim Rice-Elton John hit show ‘The Lion King’. During this time Shaun has also performed with the esteemed likes of Chaka Khan, Stevie Wonder and the late, great Prince.

He is now 5 albums into an illustrious recording career which began back in 2001, with the release of the now classic nu-soul cuts such as ‘Space Rider’ and ‘Days Like This’, the latter of which got the famed DJ Spinna remix treatment & is a special clubland anthem and a fave at Summer Soulstice. Subsequent releases from Shaun include the albums ‘Move Into Soul’ (2007), ‘The Red Room’ (2014) & ‘Evergreen’ (2016).

Now signed to the independent UK soul/jazz label Dome, his recent singles such as ‘Nature’s Call’, ‘People‘, ‘Perfect Love Affair‘, and ‘When The Love Has Gone’, all have received A-list rotation from BBC Radio 2. In 2017 he already has more airplay success with his last single ‘Healing Me’.

Shaun played a sell-out concert at the prestigious Union Chapel in London in 2016 and year later performed at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival before headlining at Summer Soulstice. He also recently gained his black belt in the marshal art of jiu jitsu… Don’t mess!