Fluent in a number of language including English, French & Lingala John-Samuel Kande was born in Brussels and moved to London at age 9 his father Jean-Jacques Kande was a Congolese journalist who also worked for The New York Time. Due to the nature of his father's profession JS lived across Europe and Africa prior to England where he predominantly grew up and discovered acting at the age of 12 he describe it as a sense of relief being able to express his multi-cultural background and not being judge for it as he suffered with identity issues growing up.