By Hazeez Balogun
Lagos
The big screen or Nollywood as we call it in Nigeria has produced a lot of female stars. From the way they are reported, one would think they are the ones who make the entertainment industry go round. They are usually the ones in the headlines and in the eye of controversies and scandals. It is sometimes funny to read adjectives used to describe them in the media – Screen goddess, diva, sultry amongst many others. They do deserve all these hype as they work hard on their craft.
However, there are another set of actresses who deserve equal hype and praises. They are in an industry that preceded even Nollywood itself. They are the television divas. Like other countries vibrant entertainment scene, the movie and TV industries in Nigeria are very different and hardly connected. We have producers and directors who have built their careers making only Tv soap operas – Same for the actors as well. Over the years, there are faces we have come to associate with our television sets. Though they sometimes do one or two gigs in Nollywood, they are always are back, brightening up our tv screens.
Here is a list of die hard tv actresses.
Ireti Doyle
Ireti Doyle is the wife of another popular actor, but it is not the union that got her to the heights she is today. It is her undeniable acting talent. Her first major feature was in Fuji House of Commotion and today she is a regular in Tinsel which has ran for over six years. Doyle is also in the critically acclaimed Gidi up.
Ireti has also featured in several Nollywood films including Across the Niger, Sitanda, Torn and The Therapist. She was nominated for Best Actress in a leading role at the 2013 Best of Nollywood Awards.
Iretiola was born in Ondo State but spent her early years with her family in Boston, United States. After returning to Nigeria, she attended Christ’s School Ado Ekiti and graduated from the University of Jos with a degree in Theatre Arts.
Once she was an anchor person on the Silverbird Television Breakfast show. For Ireti, entertainment seems an inherent part of her, considering the passion and attention that have followed her career.
Gloria Young
Gloria Young came on our Tv screens fist as Gloria Anozie. Then she was not even an actress, she was on the popular Charly Boy Show. She later acted in a chartbuster film, Glamour Girls, which made her a celebrity of some sort.
Slowly she gravitated towards tv dramas. She even married another Tv star, Norbert Young, hence her new surname. There is hardly any successful soap opera running on television that does not have the imprint of this actress. Currently she is on both Face to Face and Binding Duty.
Osas Ighodaro
Osas Ighodaro is a Nigerian American actress, model and presenter. In 2010 she was crowned Miss Black USA. She co-hosted the2014 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards with Ikponmwosa Osakioduwa and Vimbai Mutinhiri. She has been in the Nigerian entertainments scene for less than five years yet she has become one of the most sort after actresses on TV. In fact she has featured in more television dramas in the past five years than any other actress and actor for that matter. She is in Tinsel, Meet the Browns, Parallels – The Web series, 12 Steps to Recovery, and Conviction.
Funlola Aofeyebi-Raimi
She is one of the few actresses on the scene that commands a lot of respect because of the way she comports herself. Funmilola made waves on radio with Touch of Spice after which she took up a paid-employment at an advert agency in Lagos. Now she is one of the faces dazzling in Tinsel. She once emerged tops at a reality TV show, Celebrity Takes Two.
Kehinde Bankole
If anybody should be crowned the queen of Televison, it is probably, Kehinde Bankole. She has featured in most Tv programmes than almost everyone despite still being in her early thirties.
Kehinde Bankole, a graduate of Mass Communication, from Olabisi Onabanjo University was on Miss Commonwealth beauty pageant after her stint in Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria 2004. Kehinde got her first acting opportunity at Wale Adenuga Productions, Super Story and This Life series. She has also done dramas series and soaps including Doctor’s Quaters, Disclosure, Papa Ajasco & Co, Echoes, Friends, Tinsel, Green Grass, Shadows, and Crack in the Wall.
That is not all, She has also acted in other movies including, Imala, Two Brides and a Baby, Awakening, The Meeting, Facade, Return of Jeniffer, Igbanbajo and lots more. Kehinde was awarded the Revelation Of The Year in 2009 by the Best of Nollywood(BON) awards for her role in the Yoruba movie, Elerin-Eye. More awards have followed.
Amanda Ebeye
Amanda Mike-Ebeye is a Benson Idahosa University, Benin graduate. Since she featured in her maiden movie, Weeping Tiger in 2007, she has featured in various soap operas. She is best known for her roles in Super Story and Clinic Matters
Ufuoma Ejenobor
She started off as a model, participated in a few beauty pageants before turning to acting. She has featured in numerous Tv productions including ‘Private Storm’, ‘My Mum and I’, ‘Super Story’, ‘Hot Island’ and more.
Kiki Omeili
Nkiruka ‘Kiki’ Omeiliis is not an household name, but an household face. She has featured in a lot of Tv series. The latest being the Lekki Wives series.