American actor James Duke Walker, a protégé of Jamaican playwright David Heron, whose performance in the 2018 movie Roadside Assistance earned him acclaim, hosts the PHP (People Helping People) Agency’s Independence Day Life Coaching and Networking event, Friday at The New Vibe Lounge in Long Island, New York.

The former construction worker’s turn as Justin in Roadside Assistance won him awards including Italy’s Osiris Award for Best Acting Debut, and a Vegas Film Award for Best Acting Duo with co-star Annie Sage Whitehurst.

The PHP event is a different ‘production’. Walker will work with a formidable team who specialises in teaching persons to “achieve a truly independent life-personally, professionally and financially.”

That team includes certified neuromuscular therapist Andrea Smith, financial coach and PHP marketing director, Alexi Smith, relationship and dating coach Hashim Locario, and motivational speaker/fitness expert Adrian Richardson.

The Smiths and Locario are of Jamaican descent.

Walker, who recently appeared in Leonora, a play by American writer David Stallings, is looking forward to the seminar.

“I’m very happy to be part of the PHP team in hosting the Independence Day Life Coaching event because it is designed to educate and enlighten attendees about how they can achieve a truly independent life-personally, professionally and financially,” he said. “These are lessons that I myself have adopted in my everyday life as well as in my own acting career, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have achieved great success in a relatively short timeframe.”

Two years ago, Walker was working in construction in his native Queens, New York when he met Heron who heads the Sure Thing PR firm there. Heron told the broadwayworld.com website that Walker was a natural.

“I told him immediately I thought he should be doing voice-over work and radio commercials. He really sounded like a young James Earl Jones. But then when we met to discuss that, I basically realised that voice-over work was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what might be possible for him,” said Heron.

Walker’s latest acting gigs also include Amazon Prime’s Emmy Award-winning television series The Marvelous Mrs Maisel as well as Investigation Discovery’s crime drama Diabolical.