Genevieve Nnaji
Nigerian actress, widely seen as the top actress in Nollywood, a superstar even. She is well-known not just in Nigeria but across English-speaking Africa, if not beyond. She is also, according to this blog, the most beautiful actress in Nigeria. I am hardly alone in that opinion. I have read that she has bad skin and duck feet, but she is a beauty to me!
In 2004 she was the face of Lux soap in Nigeria. Her face appeared on billboards across the country, she has appeared in dozens of films, at least 80. Nollywood films take about a month to make and most go straight to video. They seem to run about 90 minutes.
As of this writing (January 2009) you can see some of her films on YouTube – cut up into ten-minute pieces the longest video YouTube allows, I do not remember seeing her films there a year ago and I doubt they will still be there a year from now. So go see her while you have the chance! She acts in English.
I have not seen any of her films all the way through yet, so I do not know how much of her stardom is due to her charm and beauty and how much to her acting talent.
When she went to Sierra Leone after the war the people there were overjoyed to see her, like she was a visiting princess or something. People love her in Ghana too. Well, not everyone loves her. Most people tend to either love her or hate her. It is hard to be in the middle about her.
Her parents had a hard time accepting her decision to become an actress. Acting is not a universally respected profession in Nigeria, not like law or engineering. All the stories in the press about the private lives of Nollywood stars do not help either – it makes acting seem like an immoral way of life. So much so that people urge Nnaji to turn to God! She was a no body who had to prove her talent.
But now her troubles are those of being famous: the press that tries to tear her down and tell the world all about her private life, even spreading false stories about her. She had a child at 17 and one year she was not allowed to make any films at all neither of which was able to sink her star.
Dakore Egbuson
Dakore Egbuson (1978- ) is a Nigerian actress who calls herself the “it” girl of Nollywood. She was in “Emotional Crack”, “Dangerous Sisters” with Genevieve Nnaji, “Before the Sunrise” and dozens of others. She has won three Reel Awards, the top acting award in Nigeria. Who are rich and stuck on themselves. Despite her awards some say she is not so much acting as being herself, that she does not have a wide acting range, that she is put in films more for her beauty than for her acting talent.
She has beautiful eyes and lips and a lovely figure. She has dreadlocks avoiding the terrible hairdos Nollywood has seen and knows how to dress and carry her. She wears her hair in dreadlocks because it is easier than braids (which keep falling out) or a perm. But she also does it to show her African’s. Dreadlocks came to Nigeria from Jamaica, true, but it is a way for a black woman to wear her hair naturally.
She did not understand it till she was living in London: “When you see yourself in a sea of white people, you become more aware of whom you are.” Although she is an Ijaw, born in Bayelsa in the middle of the Niger Delta, she grew up in Lagos. Her father was a builder. She was sent to good schools and had the best of everything. She went to the University of Lagos and became a television presenter. She was not thinking about acting.
Then one day she ran into Emem Isong, a film producer. He took one look at her and wanted her in his shows. She read some lines for him. Nothing seems to come of it. But a year later, in 2000, he gave her the lead in a film, “Amsteel Malta Silent Tears”. That led to other films and the rest is history.
She was in Britain for a while. There she was a dancer and a backing singer. She was also a presenter and producer for BEN television, a channel on Sky Digital for black Africans living in Europe and North Africa. In 2007 she became the face of. Malta is a sort of virgin beer made into a soft drink. It is common in the Caribbean and West Africa
Omotola Jalade Ekeinde
Omotola Jalade Ekeinde (1978- ), also known as Omosexy, is one of the top actresses in Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. Known all across English-speaking Africa and beyond, only Genevieve Nnaji clearly outshines her.
She is probably best known for “Blood Sisters” (2003), “The Prostitute” and, the film that made her name, “Mortal Inheritance” (1996). She has been in more than 250 films. Most Nollywood films are cheap, straight-to-video affairs. In American terms she is sort of like Toccara Jones with the acting talent of Uma Thurman.
According to this blog, she is the second most beautiful Nigerian actress. I would watch a film just because she was in it. She is one of those women that it is hard for me to take my eyes off of. She has an amazing body, a full African figure. Her eyes seem a bit small and far apart, but I love her face all the same. Especially her mouth and the way she moves it.
Her beauty is even more amazing when you consider that she has had four children. She had them pretty early so it was easier for her to get back to her old shape. But now that her body knows a larger size, she has to fight it, exercising every day walking and watching what she eats plenty of fruit, turkey and chicken without the skin.
She says the secret to being beautiful is to love you. Get that right and all else will follow. It was easy for her to get into film: not only is she beautiful but she has natural acting talent, making characters come to life. Producers wanted her in their films!
In the early days her mother stopped her from taking certain parts: she was a strict Christian and brought up Omotola that way. It seems to have stuck with her. For one thing, Omotola has been married to the same man for 12 years. That is a long time for the Nollywood set.
Her father, the manager of a Lagos country club, died when she was young. It made her more serious than most. It also made acting possible: her father would not have allowed her to act, but with him gone they needed the money.
Omotola is Yoruba, but speaks English as if it was her mother tongue. Maybe it is, in 2006 it was discovered that film producers were paying her and other top stars huge sums of money. So they were not allowed to act in any films for a year. Some thought Nollywood would fall, but it made it through. In the meantime Omotola went into singing. She came out with one album and in 2008 is working on her second. Her first one was not so great.
Like Angelina Jolie, Omotola is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations. They sent her to Sierra Leone and Liberia, two countries torn apart by war. The people there have seen her films and love her
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