Profile Page 6 of 9
In-depth profiles of the entertainers, entrepreneurs, creatives and personalities making headlines — who they are and how they got here.
Celebrity Buzz “Kiss from a Rose” was nearly left off an album. Seal’s Nigerian roots and the song that won three Grammys
Seal, born Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel in London to a Nigerian mother, reportedly almost left "Kiss from a Rose" off his 1994 album. After it appeared in Batman Forever, it won Record and Song of the Year at the 1996 Grammys.
Movies & TV A council estate in north London to the Oscar shortlist: Sophie Okonedo and Hotel Rwanda
Sophie Okonedo, the British actress whose father was Nigerian, was nominated for an Oscar for Hotel Rwanda (2004). She later won a Tony Award for A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway and was appointed CBE.
Celebrity Buzz 32 Premier League goals in his first season at Liverpool: the year Mohamed Salah rewrote the record book
In 2017-18, his first season at Liverpool, Mohamed Salah scored 32 Premier League goals, a record for a 38-game season at the time. He went on to win the Champions League and the Premier League, and became one of Africa's most celebrated players.
Celebrity Buzz He had barely played basketball when he left Lagos. Hakeem Olajuwon won two NBA titles and invented the Dream Shake
Hakeem Olajuwon grew up in Lagos playing football and handball, took up basketball as a teenager and moved to Houston in 1980. He won back-to-back NBA championships with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995 and was named MVP in 1994.
Movies & TV Before she was Okoye, Danai Gurira wrote the first Broadway play with an all-Black, all-female cast and creative team
Danai Gurira, raised in Zimbabwe, is known as Okoye in Black Panther and Michonne in The Walking Dead. She is also a Tony-nominated playwright whose play Eclipsed, about women in the Liberian civil war, reached Broadway in 2016 with Lupita Nyong'o.
Celebrity Buzz For thirty years her name was misspelt in the credits. Thandiwe Newton took back the “w”
Thandiwe Newton, the British actress with a Zimbabwean mother, was credited as "Thandie" for most of her career. In 2021 she reclaimed the correct spelling of her Zulu name. She won an Emmy in 2018 for her role as Maeve in Westworld.
Movies & TV Nigerian parents “farmed” him out to a white family in Essex. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje turned it into a film
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, known for Oz and Lost, wrote and directed Farming (2018) about his own childhood: one of many Nigerian children "farmed out" by their parents to white British foster families in the 1960s and 1970s. Damson Idris played him.
Celebrity Buzz He lost the use of his left hand as a teenager. Black Coffee became the first African to win a dance Grammy for original work
Black Coffee, born Nkosinathi Maphumulo, won the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album in April 2022 for Subconsciously, becoming the first African to win the category for original work. He was injured as a teenager in 1990, the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison.
Celebrity Buzz “Forgive, forgive, forgive”: the dressing-room speech Didier Drogba made to a country at war
In October 2005, minutes after Côte d'Ivoire qualified for the 2006 World Cup with a 3-1 win in Sudan, Didier Drogba knelt with his teammates in the dressing room and begged the country's warring sides to lay down their weapons. The clip was played on Ivorian TV day and night.
Celebrity Buzz His father wanted a priest. Pascal Siakam left the seminary in Cameroon and became an NBA champion
Pascal Siakam was sent to a Catholic seminary in Cameroon at 11 and was expected to become a priest. He discovered basketball as a teenager, joined the NBA in 2016 and won the championship with the Toronto Raptors in 2019.