Casely-Hayford was born in Sekondi, Ghana, which was then the Gold Coast, and educated at Forrest Hill House School and Dulwich College, England.

He owned and operated Caselyco Sound Studio, Signals and Controllers, Intek Engineering, and finally Televid Video and Audio.

[4] Saka Acquaye's plays were featured at the Accra Arts Centre, including his most important and popular musical, The Lost Fisherman.

[4] The original Wulomei – a traditional folk music group that Saka Acquaye managed – was introduced to a national audience at the Accra Arts Centre.

Master drummer, percussionist and musician Guy Warren (Kofi Ghanaba) was prominently featured on several weekends.

[6] Casely-Hayford helped to arrange a durbar at Achimota School, where Louis and Lucille Armstrong and the band members were entertained by Ghanaian cultural dancers and musicians.

A noted American resident in Ghana, dentist Robert Lee, who had relocated with his family to Accra from the US in 1956, taught voice and was also often on stage.

His oldest son, Ralph, a bassist, and a nephew, Roy, played in one of Ghana's professional pop bands, "The Saints", and they performed at the Accra Arts Centre.

He also introduced puppet shows on GBC TV,[8] some of them based on the popular traditional concert party theatre format.

His father, Archie, was a pianist and a composer and his mother, Essie, also played piano and loved to sing and perform.

The last project he undertook before his death in 1989 was the installation of alternative energy windmills at Weija, in the western part of the Greater Accra Region.

Later Casely-Hayford collaborated with Professor Kwashi Quartey and Dr. Cecilia Bentsi as they visited and treated many AIDS victims.