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From Miami to Wolverhampton - meet the American aiming to transform the city's night-life

Meet Mr Miami UK, an American trying to transform the entertainment scene in Wolverhampton and inspire youth in the city to turn away from the streets of crime.

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Mr Miami UK in a Wolves jersey

His real name is Nick Alexander, but he's become known as Mr Miami across social media. He was actually born in England but grew up in the Florida city and lived there for 25 years before returning to the UK in 2012.

He is calling on authorities in Wolverhampton to provide a night-life and entertainment platform for everyone and make the city a place to go, rather than people going elsewhere and bringing revenue to other towns and cities.

Mr Miami identifies as American because he was raised there since the age of one, going on to complete his education on the other side of the Atlantic.

He was unaware of his British background most of his life. But thanks to his mother, who is from Birmingham but still resides in the States, and his estranged father, who is from Wolverhampton, he has since sought out his family ties in the UK.

After moving back to England in 2012, Mr Miami moved around in jobs from Boots, Amazon and also at Wolverhampton Council, where he worked in customer services. After that he got into event promotion and tapped into his passion for cooking, preparing meals for some of the UK's biggest celebrities and athletes, including artist Jaykae, Nines, and Walsall singer Jorja Smith, and footballers Kortney Hause and Jordan Graham.

He now wants to use all his experience in life and the entertainment sector to boost the scene in the city.

Mr Miami wants to work with others to make night-life in the city great

One thing that is driving Mr Miami on is an incident in which he had a knife and gun pulled out on him for protecting his neighbour - something which he did not expect to happen in Wolverhampton.

Whilst gun crime is a much-publicised issue in the USA, it is not something that's been as big a problem in the UK. The incident was shocking and unexpected, with Mr Miami saying he would have understood it happening if he was living a life of crime.

"If I was in the streets, I would expect that kind of thing, like living a certain 'roadman' lifestyle but I'm not, and so I do not expect these kind of things to happen to me," he recalled.

"I know what living that lifestyle entails and so I would have expected it then, but I'm not. I've been involved with gangs in the past and so I know all about that lifestyle.

"My daughter and sister were present when that happened, so my instinct was to protect them."

Even before the shocking experience, Mr Miami set out a goal of transforming the entertainment industry in Wolverhampton, but following the incident, he wants to make the transformation even more, and steer youths away from that kind of lifestyle, and instead use that time and energy in content creation.

Miami spent seven months remanded in prison for allegedly being involved in a robbery after his fingerprints were found in a vehicle allegedly used in the crime. He was later found not guilty but missed the birth of his daughter when bail was refused before he was cleared.

It was whilst in prison he came to know people that would help him get into event promotion, and it ended up opening opportunities for him.

Speaking about the current night-life in Wolverhampton and his future plans, he added: "There's no clubs here in Wolverhampton any more, and so I want to touch into the entertainment sector and revive it.

"I think that the council, venues and the police can work together on making it a safe place to go out for nights out.

"This is why I want to make a change in the city, working with the youth, with the police and council.

"I want the city to show that they actually want to make a change with the youth - not just saying it, but actually putting action to their words.

"I use myself as an example of transforming my life, - I'm always trying to encourage people , motivate them and helping others doing things in the entertainment sector such as artists, photographers, videographers, music studios, content creation.

"I want to let everyone else know that if you step outside your comfort zone a bit, we could actually make Wolverhampton into a place where they come for their entertainment.

"We are a city, next to Birmingham and I really think it's a thing where we can put in a group, collaborated effort to make this happen.

"We're from Wolverhampton, we need to move like a pack of Wolves to get it, there's no individual, it has to be as a group effort.

"I want the venues in the city to work with promoters like myself. Let's grow the scene together, let's boost the night life in this great city!

"I've created a company called GBL (Global before Local), with the slogan being 'to be globally known before you're locally recognized'.

"That's how I want to do this thing. Mr Miami is trying to make Wolverhampton Global before local, and by trying to show the youth that there other ways to make money rather than being on the streets, doing drugs or crime or doing the wrong things.

"I want to help the youth but in order to do that we need a lot of help.

"My daughter was born here and I want her generation and future generations to have a better chance at winning here not just Growing up and continuing the same cycle of not having a city that is fun to be in.

"My company GBL aims to help local artists make a way in the entertainment industry and get Wolverhampton into the light other cities are in, but we need the support of the city pushing our artists, easing up on restrictions so we can have nightclubs and places our artists can connect locally and create streams of income and also keep money in the city in order to build our local economy."

His entertaining persona, his natural American accent, and his catchphrase 'I know that's right' has set him apart from other UK-based content creators and entrepreneurs.

It's also made him a hit in households across the country, but he is still focused on Wolverhampton.

"Since I started pushing the city of Wolverhampton, I've seen the local people having pride in saying they're from here and I want to continue to that - I feel that I've helped instil a sense of pride in being from Wolverhampton rather than saying you're from West Midlands."