AN ACTOR, barista, and dad has been celebrating the success of an independent film that has been ten years in the making.
Working in the entertainment industry for the best part of a decade, Oliver Lee, from Atherton, has an impressive CV of TV shows and actors he has worked with.
Featuring on shows such as Waterloo Road, Fresh Meat, and Hollyoaks, the 37-year-old learned his trade with stars like Robert Pattinson, Olivia Coleman, and Stephen Graham.
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However, as Oliver became a dad and didn't have the freedom to "hop down to London for a last minute audition", he took a step back from acting and opened up vegan coffee shop Brewed Boy Coffee Co in 2019.
Starting out on Brown Street North in Leigh, he later downscaled to a coffee van in Warrington's Golden Square shopping centre, but always had his eye on creative work behind the scenes.
The main project Oliver was working on was an independent film called 'Ferryman', which director friend Darren Bender had been writing since 2012.
Oliver, who stars in the film, said: "I worked on a film with Darren back in around 2007, and we always said we wanted to would do another film together.
"It's taken a while but he started writing in 2012 and we worked on Ferryman in between our own projects, and eventually got a small pot of money to get us going."
Centred around a relationship between a haunted soldier and a reckless woman, Ferryman was finally completed last year and spent 12 months on the independent film circuit.
With all their hard work starting to pay off, the movie picked up seven award wins and a further eight nominations from the festivals.
Following the film's success, it has now been picked up by streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon and is scheduled for a release later this year.
Oliver, a dad-of-three with one more on the way, added: "It was amazing to be played at some of these prestigious festivals and to be up against some films with huge budgets.
"Everyone is desperate to win at these festivals because this gives your film extra weight and a better chance of being picked up.
"Ferryman is a beautiful, dark and serious film that I'm so proud of.
"I just hope people can press play and enjoy it too."
For more information about Ferryman, you can follow this link.
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