Movies & TV

Movies & TV Coriolanus at the RSC, Elliot in Gangs of London: the rise of Sope Dirisu Sope Dirisu, born in London in 1991 to Nigerian parents, earned an Ian Charleson commendation for playing Coriolanus at the Royal Shakespeare Company, a British Independent Film Award nomination for His House, and wide recognition as Elliot Carter in Sky's Gangs of London. News Nana Ama McBrown Opens Up About Her Past Accident and Struggles After Hand Surgeries Celebrated Ghanaian actress and TV personality Nana Ama McBrown has opened up about her ordeal with the severe hand injury she sustained after her… Movies & TV From a child actor in Ripples to Nigeria’s first Netflix film: Genevieve Nnaji Genevieve Nnaji, born in 1979 in Mbaise, Imo State, began acting as a child in the TV soap opera Ripples. She became one of Nollywood's biggest stars, produced Road to Yesterday in 2015, and directed Lionheart, the first Nigerian film acquired by Netflix and Nigeria's first Oscar submission. Movies & TV A Peckham boy played a Los Angeles drug kingpin for six seasons: Damson Idris and Snowfall British-Nigerian actor Damson Idris grew up in Peckham, south London, and became a star as Franklin Saint in FX's Snowfall, a drama about the crack cocaine epidemic in 1980s Los Angeles co-created by John Singleton. The series ran for six seasons from 2017 to 2023. Movies & TV From talk show host to Netflix deals: Mo Abudu and the EbonyLife empire Mo Abudu left a career in human resources to host the talk show Moments with Mo, then founded EbonyLife, a Nigerian media company behind films such as The Wedding Party and Chief Daddy. EbonyLife later signed deals with Netflix and other global companies, including the series Blood Sisters. Movies & TV Born in Port Harcourt, raised in Alaska: Chinonye Chukwu, the first Black woman to win Sundance’s top prize Nigerian-born filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu won the US Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 2019 for Clemency, starring Alfre Woodard as a prison warden. She was the first Black woman to win it. She later directed Till, about Emmett Till's mother. Movies & TV Five women, Accra, and a YouTube series called An African City: Nicole Amarteifio’s answer to Sex and the City Nicole Amarteifio created An African City, a web series launched on YouTube in 2014 about five women who return to Accra after years abroad. Often compared to Sex and the City, it sparked debates about returnees, class and modern African womanhood. Celebrity Buzz Chess prodigy of the Katwe slum: how Phiona Mutesi’s story reached Hollywood in Queen of Katwe Phiona Mutesi learned chess in a slum in Kampala, Uganda, and became a national champion and Olympiad player. Her story was told in the 2016 Disney film Queen of Katwe, directed by Mira Nair, with Madina Nalwanga, Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo. Movies & TV The Duke of Hastings grew up in Harare: Regé-Jean Page and the Bridgerton phenomenon Regé-Jean Page, who played the Duke of Hastings in Netflix's Bridgerton, was born in London to a Zimbabwean mother and an English father and spent much of his childhood in Harare. The 2020 series made him a global star. Movies & TV Accra-born Hugh Quarshie played Ric Griffin in Holby City for two decades, and a Jedi-era captain in Star Wars Hugh Quarshie, born in Accra in 1954 and raised in Britain, spent about two decades as surgeon Ric Griffin in the BBC drama Holby City. He also played Captain Panaka in Star Wars: Episode I and is a respected Shakespearean actor.