I bet you didn't know that all these celebrities are Nigerians, did you? Check 'em out:
Sade Adu
Sade was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Her middle name, Folasade, means honour confers your crown. Her parents, Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian lecturer in economics of Yoruba background, and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse, met in London, married in 1955 and moved to Nigeria. Later, when the marriage ran into difficulties, Anne Hayes returned to England, taking four-year-old Sade and her older brother Banji to live with her parents. Later on Sade and her brother lived with their grandparents just outside Colchester, Essex. When Sade was 11, she moved to Holland-on-sea, Essex to live with her mother, and after completing school at 18 she moved to London and studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art.
While in college, she joined a soul band, Pride, in which she sang backing vocals. Her solo performances of the song “Smooth Operator” attracted the attention of record companies and in 1983, she signed a solo deal with Epic Records taking three members of the band, Stuart Matthewman, Andrew Hale and Paul Denman, with her.Sade and her band produced the first of a string of hit albums. Their debut album Diamond Life appeared in 1984. She is the most successful solo female artist in British history, having sold over 110 million albums worldwide.
In 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization’s Red Hot and Riot, a compilation CD in tribute to the music of fellow Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti. She recorded a remix of her hit single, “By Your Side”, for the album and was billed as a co-producer.
Lemar
Since then, Lemar has had seven top ten UK singles and sold over two million albums. He is seen as one of the most successful artists to come out of a reality TV show. Lemar has also won two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards to date and released his fifth studio album in 2012.
Lemar Obika was born in Tottenham, North London, England to Nigerian parents from Enugu State, South Eastern Nigeria. He grew up listening to Pop and soul music. He used to sing at home with his brothers and sister, pretending to be The Jacksons.
He was 17 when he had his first concert at the Junior Jam at ‘The Temple’ in Tottenham supporting Usher.Later on he gave up an opportunity to study pharmacy at Cardiff University to pursue a musical career. Lemar had some success supporting various artists such as Destiny’s Child, Total, Uncle Sam and Usher Raymond on their UK club tours and after some years, managed to secure a recording contract with BMG. Following this, he released his debut single “Got Me Saying Ooh“. His record deal with BMG fell through in less than a year due to restructuring at the record label. He had to eventually take a job working as an accounts manager at NatWest in Enfield, North London.
Uzodinma Iweala
The son of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Ngozi was the former Managing Director, World bank and currently the Minister of Finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria), Iweala attended St. Albans School in Washington D.C. and also attended Harvard College at Harvard University earning an A.B., magna cum laude, in English and American Literature and Language in 2004. While at Harvard, Iweala earned the Hoopes Prize and Dorothy Hicks Lee Prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis, 2004; Eager Prize for Best Undergraduate Short Story, 2003; and the Horman Prize for Excellence in Creative Writing, 2003. He is a graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, class of 2011. He is currently a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
He won the New York Public Library’s 2006 Young Lions Fiction Award. In 2007, he was named as one of Granta magazine’s 20 best young American novelists.
Dr. Alban
Dr. Alban was born as Alban Uzoma Nwapa into a middle-class family of 10 children in Oguta, Imo State, Nigeria. He had his secondary education at Christ The King College, Aba, Nigeria and spent most of his youth in his hometown Oguta. At age of 23, he traveled to Sweden to study Dentistry. In order to be able to finance his studies, Dr. Alban became a DJ. He worked as a DJ at the Stockholm club Alphabet Street. Very quickly his name became widely known, especially since Dr. Alban often sang to the records he put on the turntable. DJ René couldn’t help but notice him and so he was discovered. Alban finished his studies and even opened his own dentistry practice, keeping his disk jockeying as a lucrative sideline.
In 1990, he met Denniz Pop from the SweMix label and together with Denniz and Rap-Queen Leila K, they released his first record, “Hello Africa”. Alban Uzoma Nwapa took the stage name Dr. Alban, a nod to his dental studies. His debut album Hello Africa included hits like “Hello Africa” and “No Coke”, both of which ended up being million-selling singles. The album itself was quite successful which earned Alban Gold-certification-awards in numerous markets including Germany (for sales of over 250,000 units), Austria (for sales of over 25,000 units) and Switzerland (for sales of over 25,000 units).
Nnamdi Asomugba
Asomugha was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, to Nigerian Igbo parents, and raised in Los Angeles, California. He attended Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, California and Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, California before transferring to and graduating from Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California, playing high school basketball and football and he’s currently married to Actress Kerry Washington.
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Ejiofor was born in London’s Forest Gate, to Nigerian parents who belonged to the Igbo ethnic group. His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. In 1988, when Ejiofor was 11, during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding, he and his father were driving to Lagos after the celebrations when their car was involved in a head-on crash with a lorry. His father was killed, but Ejiofor survived. He was badly injured, and received the scars on his forehead. Ejiofor began acting in school plays at the age of thirteen at Dulwich College and joined the National Youth Theatre. He then got in to The London academy of music and dramatic art but had to leave after his first year, after getting a role in Steven Spielberg film Amistad. He played the title role in Othello at the Bloomsbury Theatre in September 1995, and again at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1996 when he starred opposite Rachael Stirling, who played Desdemona.
Ejiofor made his film debut in the television film Deadly Voyage in 1996. He went on to become a stage actor in London. In Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, he gave support to Djimon Hounsou‘s Cinque as interpreter Ens. James Covey. In 1999, he appeared in the British film G:MT. In 2000, he starred Blue/Orange at the Royal National Theatre (Cottesloe stage 2002), and later at the Duchess Theatre. That same year, his performance as Romeo in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award. Ejiofor was awarded the Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the 2000 Critic’s Circle Theatre Awards. For his performance in Blue/Orange, he received the 2000 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer and a 2001 nomination for the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award Best Supporting Actor.
Ejiofor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire(OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. In the same year, he made his directorial debut in the short film Slapper, which he also wrote, based on an idea by editor/director Yusuf Pirhasan. Ejiofor appeared alongside John Cusack in the 2009 film 2012. The film went on to gross over $700 million, and is among the List of highest-grossing films of all time and placing 5th of top films of 2009. In 2013, Ejiofor appeared in the leading role in the BBC Two drama series Dancing on the Edge, playing the part of band creator Louis Lester.
Caroline Chikezie
Megalyn Echikunwoke
Echikunwoke was a series regular on the sci-fi series The 4400, as the adult version of the mysterious Isabelle Tyler. Echikunwoke left the show in 2007. Echikunwoke has also been seen in the MTV Soap Opera, Spyder Games, as Cherish Pardee, a coffee house singer and in Like Family as Danika. She also has a recurring role in the first season of 24 as Senator (and future President) David Palmer‘s daughter, Nicole. In season 7 of CSI: Miami, Echikunwoke joined the cast as the new Medical Examiner, Dr. Tara Price. She appeared on the show for one season. Echikunwoke landed a recurring role in at least three episodes of TNT’s Raising the Bar in June 2009. She played the love interest of attorney Marcus McGrath, played by J. August Richards. In 2011, Echikunwoke played Holly in the fourth season of 90210. She recently played the sultry April on Showtime‘s House of Lies and Riley Parker in the legal drama Made in Jersey on CBS. In 2013 she co-starred in the drama series Mind Games on ABC.
Hakeem Olajuwon
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Olajuwon traveled from his home country to play for the University of Houston under Coach Guy Lewis. Olajuwon emigrated from Nigeria to play basketball at the University of Houston under Cougars coach Guy Lewis. Olajuwon was not highly recruited and was merely offered a visit to the university to work out for the coaching staff, based on a recommendation from a friend of Lewis who had seen Olajuwon play. He later recalled that when he originally arrived at the airport in 1980 for the visit, no representative of the school was there to greet him. When he called the staff, they told him to take a taxi out to the university. His college career for the Cougars included three trips to the Final Four. At the time, he spelled his first name Akeem. Olajuwon was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the first overall selection of the 1984 NBA Draft, a draft that included Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton. In Houston he was nicknamed “Akeem The Dream” for his grace on and off the court. He combined with the 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) Ralph Sampson to form a duo dubbed the “Twin Towers”. The two led the Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, where they lost in six games to the Boston Celtics. After Sampson was traded to theWarriors in 1988, Olajuwon became the Rockets’ undisputed leader. He led the league in rebounding twice (1989, 1990) and blocks three times (1990, 1991, 1993).
Raised as a Mulim, Olajuwon became more devoted to the faith during this period and changed the spelling of his name from Akeem to Hakeem. Despite very nearly being traded during a bitter contract dispute before the 1992–93 season, he remained in Houston where in 1993–94, he became the only player in NBA history to win the NBA MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP awards in the same season. His Rockets won back-to-back championships against the New York Knicks(avenging his college championship loss to Patrick Ewing), and Shaquille O’Neal‘s Orlando Magic. In 1996, Olajuwon was a member of the Olympic gold-medal-winning United States National Team, and was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He ended his career as the league’s all-time leader in blocks, with 3,830.
Olajuwon was born to Salim and Abike Olajuwon, middle-class Yoruba owners of a cement business in Lagos, Nigeria. “Olajuwon” translates to “always being on top” in Yoruba. He was the third of six children. He credits his parents with instilling virtues of hard work and discipline into him and his siblings; “They taught us to be honest, work hard, respect our elders, and believe in ourselves”. Olajuwon has expressed displeasure at his childhood in Nigeria being characterized as backwards. “Lagos is a very cosmopolitan city…There are many ethnic groups. I grew up in an environment at schools where there were all different types of people.”
Abi Olajuwon
Seal
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel was born on 19 February 1963 in Paddington, London, England to a Nigerian mother, Adebisi Samuel, and a Brazilian father, Francis Samuel. One of Seal’s middle names, Olusegun, means “God is victorious” in the Yoruba language. He was raised in a district of the City of Westminster in inner London by his foster family. He received a two-year diploma, or associate’s degree, in architecture and worked in various jobs in the London area. Although there have long been rumours as to the cause of the scars on his face, they are in fact the result of a type of lupus called discoid lupus erythematosus – a condition that specifically affects the skin above the neck.
Wale
Wale, a Nigerian American, was born Olubowale Victor Akintimehin in Northwest, Washington, D.C. on September 21, 1984. His parents are of the Yoruba ethnic group of southwestern Nigeria and came to the United States from Austria in 1979. Wale’s family first lived inNorthwest, Washington, D.C before moving to Montgomery County when Wale was 10. He is the cousin of actor Gbenga Akinnagbe, best known as Chris Partlow on HBO’s The Wire and the British producer Maleek Berry.
Chamillionaire
He began his career independently with local releases in 2002, including collaboration album Get Ya Mind Correct with fellow Houston rapper and childhood friend Paul Wall. He signed to Universal Records in 2005 and released The Sound of Revenge under Universal. It included hit singles “Turn It Up” featuring Lil’ Flip and the number-one, Grammy-winning hit “Ridin’” featuring Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Ultimate Victory followed in 2007, which was notable for not containing any profanity. In early 2011, he left Universal Records, which would lead to his would-be third album, Venom, to go unreleased. Seriki’s stage name Chamillionaire is a portmanteau of “chameleon” and “millionaire”
Dayo Okeniyi
Donald Faison
Faison has also co-starred in the films Remember the Titans (2000), Uptown Girls (2003), Something New (2006), Next Day Air (2009) and Kick-Ass 2 (2013). Faison was born in Harlem, New York, the son of Shirley, a talent agent, and Donald Faison, a building manager. His parents were active with the National Black Theatre in Harlem. Faison was married to Lisa Askey from 2001 to 2005. After six years of dating, Faison married his second wife, CaCee Cobb, on December 15, 2012. The wedding was held at the home of Faison’s former Scrubs co-star and best friend Zach Braff, who also served as a groomsman. Serving as a bridesmaid was singer Jessica Simpson, for whom Cobb formerly worked as a personal assistant. Faison has five children: son Sean (born 1997), from a previous relationship; son Dade and daughter Kaya (fraternal twins, born 1999) and son Kobe (born 2001), with Askey; and son Rocco (born 2013), with Cobb.
Akbar Gbaja-Biamila
Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila
While attending Crenshaw High School, Gbaja-Biamila was a student-owner of Food From the Hood, an organic food company that sprang from the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Food From the Hood eventually went on to launch a line of salad dressings that appeared in all major Southern California grocery chains as well as on Amazon.com. For their work, Food From the Hood received the “American Achievement Award” from Newsweek, which featured both Gbaja-Biamila on its cover. On November 1, 1994 Prince Charles paid a visit to Crenshaw High School, upon an invitation from Food From The Hood.
Bola Agbaje
Akinnuoye-Agbaje
His best known acting roles have been as the imposing convict Simon Adebisi in the 1990s HBO prison series Oz, and as Mr. Eko on ABC’s survivor drama Lost. He was also in an episode of New York Undercover. He has numerous film credits since he began acting in 1994 and has appeared in many top films, including The Bourne Identity, in which he played a deposed African dictator, Hitu the police officer in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns, and Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2009, Akinnuoye-Agbaje told MTV that he was in talks with Marvel Studios to play the superhero Black Panther in aa proposed film of the same name. When asked, the actor replied “…it’s about time we have a black superhero, isn’t it? He’s from a fictional village in Africa and the timing is so right for that kind of character to come through… And while I’m in my prime, this is the time. We’ve got [U.S. President Barack] Obama, now we need something onscreen to represent, so… ‘Panther,’ man I would love to see that happen [...] I think it’s all about campaigning, I’m going to keep knocking on their door.”
Akinnuoye-Agbaje has also stated that he will be directing a film about his life story. More recently, he guest starred in the second episode of season 8 of Monk, and played Derek Jameson in the 2011 film The Thing. He portrayed Kurse in the Marvel Studios filmThor: The Dark World. Akinnuoye-Agbaje is a Buddhist and a member of Sōka Gakkai International.
Kehinde Wiley
He earned his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and his MFA from Yale University, School of Art in 2001. Wiley’s painting style has been compared to that of such traditional portraitists as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian and Ingres. The Columbus Museum of Art, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007, describes his work with the following: “Kehinde Wiley has gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture.”
Taio Cruz
In October 2009, Cruz released his follow-up album Rokstarr, which includes the number one singles “Break Your Heart” and “Dynamite“. Cruz has collaborated with Kesha and Fabolous on the single “Dirty Picture“, as well as Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoyon his single “Higher“. Cruz was born in London, to a Nigerian father and a Brazillian mother. Cruz began writing songs when he was 12, Cruz is the founder and chief executive of Rokstarr Music London, which in 2006 released his debut single “I Just Wanna Know“.
Omarosa Manigault
David Oyelowo
Tunde Baiyewu
In 2005, he appeared on the BBC Television one-off special, Strictly African Dancing. He came last, but he learned the Bata dance in the process. In March 2007, Baiyewu married Tope Adeshina, a young Nigerian model, in Lagos, Nigeria. They live in the UK while his mother went on to marry former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo who, like both her and Baiyewu himself, is of the Yoruba ethnic group.
Tinie Tempah
In November 2013, he released his second album, titled Demonstration, preceded by singles “Trampoline” and “Children of the Sun“, which debuted at number three and six in the UK respectively. Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu was born in London, England, on 7 November 1988, to parents from Ibusa, Delta State, Nigeria. At 12 years old, Okogwu conceived his stage name under which to make music after viewing the music video for So Solid Crew‘s “21 Seconds“. Okogwu used a thesaurus in class, juxtaposing “tempah” (temper), which he saw under “angry”, with “tinie” (tiny), to ameliorate the aggressive sound of “tempah”.
Regarding his London upbringing, Tempah states, “London is one of the only places in the world where you can live in a council block and see a beautiful semi-detached house across the street. Growing up around that was inspirational, it kept me motivated”.
Hakeem Kae-Kazeem
Kae-Kazim has landed role in movies like:
Okonedo was born in London, the daughter of Joan (née Allman), a pilates teacher, and Henry Okonedo (1939–2009), who worked for the government. Her father was Nigerian, and her mother, an Ashkenazi Jew, was born in the East-End, to Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Poland and Russia. Okonedo was brought up in her mother’s Jewish faith. When she was five years old, her father left the family, and she was brought up in relative poverty by her single mother (“but we always had books,” she has said).
Okonedo was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Okonedo has three children, from a previous relationship. They live in Muswell Hill, London. On her heritage, Sophie says, “I feel as proud to be Jewish as I feel to be black” and calls her daughter an “Irish, Nigerian Jew”. Her father Henry died on 22 July 2009 in Orlando, Florida, USA.
Femi Oke
Femi began her career at age 14 working as a junior reporter for the United Kingdom’s first talk radio station LBC. During 1993 Femi worked for a cable station called Wire TV, this was pre-Janet Street Porter’s L!VE TV. Femi presented several shows for the station, including the popular Soap on the Wire on a Saturday afternoon, with soap opera expert Chris Stacey. In the early 1990s, Femi presented the BBC’s flagship educational science programme Science In Action and was also a presenter of Top of the Pops. She has also worked for GMTV, London Weekend Television, Men & Motors and Carlton Television. She joined CNN in 1999, and worked there until 2008. She has accepted an invitation to teach on behalf of the World Meteorological Organization in Buenos, Aires, Argentina, conducted guest lectures forEmory University in Atlanta and been a guest speaker at the United Nations, addressing the World Food Programme in Rome, Italy.
Gabriel Agbonlahor
Agbonlahor was one of four children born to a Nigerian father and a Scottish mother in Birmingham. However his parents separated while he was still young and he lived with his father, without any contact with his mother for around 20 years. In 2009, ahead of the striker’s 23rd birthday, his mother made a public appeal to him via the Sunday Mercurynewspaper, in order to become part of his life once more.[59][dead link] Agbonlahor later contacted his mother and the pair reconciled.[60][dead link] Agbonlahor’s brother, Charisma, plays as a striker for Midlands Combination Premier League side Earlswood Town FC.[61][62]
Carmen Ejogo
Udoji founded The Boshia Group, a network of content and operational strategists, producers and storytellers. An award winning journalist, Udoji is a graduate of UCLA School of Law. She is among a small group of journalists who have worked in network and cable news, as well as public radio. She’s lived on three continents including Africa, Europe and North America; and holds dual American & Irish citizenship. Born to father Godfrey Udoji, former chief engineer for the city of Dearborn, Michigan, and mother Mary, former director of Washtenaw County Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 2002, she married fellow television journalist Ron Allen of NBC News.
Sade Adu
- Helen Folasade Adu
Sade was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. Her middle name, Folasade, means honour confers your crown. Her parents, Adebisi Adu, a Nigerian lecturer in economics of Yoruba background, and Anne Hayes, an English district nurse, met in London, married in 1955 and moved to Nigeria. Later, when the marriage ran into difficulties, Anne Hayes returned to England, taking four-year-old Sade and her older brother Banji to live with her parents. Later on Sade and her brother lived with their grandparents just outside Colchester, Essex. When Sade was 11, she moved to Holland-on-sea, Essex to live with her mother, and after completing school at 18 she moved to London and studied at Saint Martin’s School of Art.
While in college, she joined a soul band, Pride, in which she sang backing vocals. Her solo performances of the song “Smooth Operator” attracted the attention of record companies and in 1983, she signed a solo deal with Epic Records taking three members of the band, Stuart Matthewman, Andrew Hale and Paul Denman, with her.Sade and her band produced the first of a string of hit albums. Their debut album Diamond Life appeared in 1984. She is the most successful solo female artist in British history, having sold over 110 million albums worldwide.
In 2002, she appeared on the Red Hot Organization’s Red Hot and Riot, a compilation CD in tribute to the music of fellow Nigerian musician, Fela Kuti. She recorded a remix of her hit single, “By Your Side”, for the album and was billed as a co-producer.
Lemar
- Lemar Obika
Since then, Lemar has had seven top ten UK singles and sold over two million albums. He is seen as one of the most successful artists to come out of a reality TV show. Lemar has also won two Brit Awards and three MOBO Awards to date and released his fifth studio album in 2012.
Lemar Obika was born in Tottenham, North London, England to Nigerian parents from Enugu State, South Eastern Nigeria. He grew up listening to Pop and soul music. He used to sing at home with his brothers and sister, pretending to be The Jacksons.
He was 17 when he had his first concert at the Junior Jam at ‘The Temple’ in Tottenham supporting Usher.Later on he gave up an opportunity to study pharmacy at Cardiff University to pursue a musical career. Lemar had some success supporting various artists such as Destiny’s Child, Total, Uncle Sam and Usher Raymond on their UK club tours and after some years, managed to secure a recording contract with BMG. Following this, he released his debut single “Got Me Saying Ooh“. His record deal with BMG fell through in less than a year due to restructuring at the record label. He had to eventually take a job working as an accounts manager at NatWest in Enfield, North London.
Uzodinma Iweala
- Uzodinma Iweala
The son of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Ngozi was the former Managing Director, World bank and currently the Minister of Finance for the Federal Republic of Nigeria), Iweala attended St. Albans School in Washington D.C. and also attended Harvard College at Harvard University earning an A.B., magna cum laude, in English and American Literature and Language in 2004. While at Harvard, Iweala earned the Hoopes Prize and Dorothy Hicks Lee Prize for Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis, 2004; Eager Prize for Best Undergraduate Short Story, 2003; and the Horman Prize for Excellence in Creative Writing, 2003. He is a graduate of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, class of 2011. He is currently a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
He won the New York Public Library’s 2006 Young Lions Fiction Award. In 2007, he was named as one of Granta magazine’s 20 best young American novelists.
Dr. Alban
- Alban Uzoma Nwapa
Dr. Alban was born as Alban Uzoma Nwapa into a middle-class family of 10 children in Oguta, Imo State, Nigeria. He had his secondary education at Christ The King College, Aba, Nigeria and spent most of his youth in his hometown Oguta. At age of 23, he traveled to Sweden to study Dentistry. In order to be able to finance his studies, Dr. Alban became a DJ. He worked as a DJ at the Stockholm club Alphabet Street. Very quickly his name became widely known, especially since Dr. Alban often sang to the records he put on the turntable. DJ René couldn’t help but notice him and so he was discovered. Alban finished his studies and even opened his own dentistry practice, keeping his disk jockeying as a lucrative sideline.
In 1990, he met Denniz Pop from the SweMix label and together with Denniz and Rap-Queen Leila K, they released his first record, “Hello Africa”. Alban Uzoma Nwapa took the stage name Dr. Alban, a nod to his dental studies. His debut album Hello Africa included hits like “Hello Africa” and “No Coke”, both of which ended up being million-selling singles. The album itself was quite successful which earned Alban Gold-certification-awards in numerous markets including Germany (for sales of over 250,000 units), Austria (for sales of over 25,000 units) and Switzerland (for sales of over 25,000 units).
Nnamdi Asomugba
- Nnamdi Asomugba
Asomugha was born in Lafayette, Louisiana, to Nigerian Igbo parents, and raised in Los Angeles, California. He attended Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, California and Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, California before transferring to and graduating from Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California, playing high school basketball and football and he’s currently married to Actress Kerry Washington.
Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Chiwetelu Umeadi Ejiofor
Ejiofor was born in London’s Forest Gate, to Nigerian parents who belonged to the Igbo ethnic group. His father, Arinze, was a doctor, and his mother, Obiajulu, was a pharmacist. In 1988, when Ejiofor was 11, during a family trip to Nigeria for a wedding, he and his father were driving to Lagos after the celebrations when their car was involved in a head-on crash with a lorry. His father was killed, but Ejiofor survived. He was badly injured, and received the scars on his forehead. Ejiofor began acting in school plays at the age of thirteen at Dulwich College and joined the National Youth Theatre. He then got in to The London academy of music and dramatic art but had to leave after his first year, after getting a role in Steven Spielberg film Amistad. He played the title role in Othello at the Bloomsbury Theatre in September 1995, and again at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow in 1996 when he starred opposite Rachael Stirling, who played Desdemona.
Ejiofor made his film debut in the television film Deadly Voyage in 1996. He went on to become a stage actor in London. In Steven Spielberg’s Amistad, he gave support to Djimon Hounsou‘s Cinque as interpreter Ens. James Covey. In 1999, he appeared in the British film G:MT. In 2000, he starred Blue/Orange at the Royal National Theatre (Cottesloe stage 2002), and later at the Duchess Theatre. That same year, his performance as Romeo in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award. Ejiofor was awarded the Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer at the 2000 Critic’s Circle Theatre Awards. For his performance in Blue/Orange, he received the 2000 London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Outstanding Newcomer and a 2001 nomination for the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award Best Supporting Actor.
Ejiofor was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire(OBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. In the same year, he made his directorial debut in the short film Slapper, which he also wrote, based on an idea by editor/director Yusuf Pirhasan. Ejiofor appeared alongside John Cusack in the 2009 film 2012. The film went on to gross over $700 million, and is among the List of highest-grossing films of all time and placing 5th of top films of 2009. In 2013, Ejiofor appeared in the leading role in the BBC Two drama series Dancing on the Edge, playing the part of band creator Louis Lester.
Caroline Chikezie
- Caroline Chikezie
Megalyn Echikunwoke
- Megalyn Ann Echikunwoke
Echikunwoke was a series regular on the sci-fi series The 4400, as the adult version of the mysterious Isabelle Tyler. Echikunwoke left the show in 2007. Echikunwoke has also been seen in the MTV Soap Opera, Spyder Games, as Cherish Pardee, a coffee house singer and in Like Family as Danika. She also has a recurring role in the first season of 24 as Senator (and future President) David Palmer‘s daughter, Nicole. In season 7 of CSI: Miami, Echikunwoke joined the cast as the new Medical Examiner, Dr. Tara Price. She appeared on the show for one season. Echikunwoke landed a recurring role in at least three episodes of TNT’s Raising the Bar in June 2009. She played the love interest of attorney Marcus McGrath, played by J. August Richards. In 2011, Echikunwoke played Holly in the fourth season of 90210. She recently played the sultry April on Showtime‘s House of Lies and Riley Parker in the legal drama Made in Jersey on CBS. In 2013 she co-starred in the drama series Mind Games on ABC.
Hakeem Olajuwon
- Hakeem Abdul “The Dream” Olajuwon
Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Olajuwon traveled from his home country to play for the University of Houston under Coach Guy Lewis. Olajuwon emigrated from Nigeria to play basketball at the University of Houston under Cougars coach Guy Lewis. Olajuwon was not highly recruited and was merely offered a visit to the university to work out for the coaching staff, based on a recommendation from a friend of Lewis who had seen Olajuwon play. He later recalled that when he originally arrived at the airport in 1980 for the visit, no representative of the school was there to greet him. When he called the staff, they told him to take a taxi out to the university. His college career for the Cougars included three trips to the Final Four. At the time, he spelled his first name Akeem. Olajuwon was drafted by the Houston Rockets with the first overall selection of the 1984 NBA Draft, a draft that included Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, and John Stockton. In Houston he was nicknamed “Akeem The Dream” for his grace on and off the court. He combined with the 7 ft 4 in (2.24 m) Ralph Sampson to form a duo dubbed the “Twin Towers”. The two led the Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, where they lost in six games to the Boston Celtics. After Sampson was traded to theWarriors in 1988, Olajuwon became the Rockets’ undisputed leader. He led the league in rebounding twice (1989, 1990) and blocks three times (1990, 1991, 1993).
Raised as a Mulim, Olajuwon became more devoted to the faith during this period and changed the spelling of his name from Akeem to Hakeem. Despite very nearly being traded during a bitter contract dispute before the 1992–93 season, he remained in Houston where in 1993–94, he became the only player in NBA history to win the NBA MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP awards in the same season. His Rockets won back-to-back championships against the New York Knicks(avenging his college championship loss to Patrick Ewing), and Shaquille O’Neal‘s Orlando Magic. In 1996, Olajuwon was a member of the Olympic gold-medal-winning United States National Team, and was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. He ended his career as the league’s all-time leader in blocks, with 3,830.
Olajuwon was born to Salim and Abike Olajuwon, middle-class Yoruba owners of a cement business in Lagos, Nigeria. “Olajuwon” translates to “always being on top” in Yoruba. He was the third of six children. He credits his parents with instilling virtues of hard work and discipline into him and his siblings; “They taught us to be honest, work hard, respect our elders, and believe in ourselves”. Olajuwon has expressed displeasure at his childhood in Nigeria being characterized as backwards. “Lagos is a very cosmopolitan city…There are many ethnic groups. I grew up in an environment at schools where there were all different types of people.”
Abi Olajuwon
- Abisola Arisicate Ajoke Olajuwon
Seal
- Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel was born on 19 February 1963 in Paddington, London, England to a Nigerian mother, Adebisi Samuel, and a Brazilian father, Francis Samuel. One of Seal’s middle names, Olusegun, means “God is victorious” in the Yoruba language. He was raised in a district of the City of Westminster in inner London by his foster family. He received a two-year diploma, or associate’s degree, in architecture and worked in various jobs in the London area. Although there have long been rumours as to the cause of the scars on his face, they are in fact the result of a type of lupus called discoid lupus erythematosus – a condition that specifically affects the skin above the neck.
Wale
- Olubowale Victor Akintimehin
Wale, a Nigerian American, was born Olubowale Victor Akintimehin in Northwest, Washington, D.C. on September 21, 1984. His parents are of the Yoruba ethnic group of southwestern Nigeria and came to the United States from Austria in 1979. Wale’s family first lived inNorthwest, Washington, D.C before moving to Montgomery County when Wale was 10. He is the cousin of actor Gbenga Akinnagbe, best known as Chris Partlow on HBO’s The Wire and the British producer Maleek Berry.
Chamillionaire
- Hakeem Seriki
He began his career independently with local releases in 2002, including collaboration album Get Ya Mind Correct with fellow Houston rapper and childhood friend Paul Wall. He signed to Universal Records in 2005 and released The Sound of Revenge under Universal. It included hit singles “Turn It Up” featuring Lil’ Flip and the number-one, Grammy-winning hit “Ridin’” featuring Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony. Ultimate Victory followed in 2007, which was notable for not containing any profanity. In early 2011, he left Universal Records, which would lead to his would-be third album, Venom, to go unreleased. Seriki’s stage name Chamillionaire is a portmanteau of “chameleon” and “millionaire”
Dayo Okeniyi
- Oludayo Okeniyi
Donald Faison
- Donald Adeosun Faison
Faison has also co-starred in the films Remember the Titans (2000), Uptown Girls (2003), Something New (2006), Next Day Air (2009) and Kick-Ass 2 (2013). Faison was born in Harlem, New York, the son of Shirley, a talent agent, and Donald Faison, a building manager. His parents were active with the National Black Theatre in Harlem. Faison was married to Lisa Askey from 2001 to 2005. After six years of dating, Faison married his second wife, CaCee Cobb, on December 15, 2012. The wedding was held at the home of Faison’s former Scrubs co-star and best friend Zach Braff, who also served as a groomsman. Serving as a bridesmaid was singer Jessica Simpson, for whom Cobb formerly worked as a personal assistant. Faison has five children: son Sean (born 1997), from a previous relationship; son Dade and daughter Kaya (fraternal twins, born 1999) and son Kobe (born 2001), with Askey; and son Rocco (born 2013), with Cobb.
Akbar Gbaja-Biamila
- Akbar Oluwakemi-Idowu Gbaja-Biamila
Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila
- Muhammed -Kabeer Olanrewaju Gbaja0Biamila
While attending Crenshaw High School, Gbaja-Biamila was a student-owner of Food From the Hood, an organic food company that sprang from the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. Food From the Hood eventually went on to launch a line of salad dressings that appeared in all major Southern California grocery chains as well as on Amazon.com. For their work, Food From the Hood received the “American Achievement Award” from Newsweek, which featured both Gbaja-Biamila on its cover. On November 1, 1994 Prince Charles paid a visit to Crenshaw High School, upon an invitation from Food From The Hood.
Bola Agbaje
- Bola Agbaje
Akinnuoye-Agbaje
- Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje
His best known acting roles have been as the imposing convict Simon Adebisi in the 1990s HBO prison series Oz, and as Mr. Eko on ABC’s survivor drama Lost. He was also in an episode of New York Undercover. He has numerous film credits since he began acting in 1994 and has appeared in many top films, including The Bourne Identity, in which he played a deposed African dictator, Hitu the police officer in Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Lock-Nah in The Mummy Returns, and Heavy Duty in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2009, Akinnuoye-Agbaje told MTV that he was in talks with Marvel Studios to play the superhero Black Panther in aa proposed film of the same name. When asked, the actor replied “…it’s about time we have a black superhero, isn’t it? He’s from a fictional village in Africa and the timing is so right for that kind of character to come through… And while I’m in my prime, this is the time. We’ve got [U.S. President Barack] Obama, now we need something onscreen to represent, so… ‘Panther,’ man I would love to see that happen [...] I think it’s all about campaigning, I’m going to keep knocking on their door.”
Akinnuoye-Agbaje has also stated that he will be directing a film about his life story. More recently, he guest starred in the second episode of season 8 of Monk, and played Derek Jameson in the 2011 film The Thing. He portrayed Kurse in the Marvel Studios filmThor: The Dark World. Akinnuoye-Agbaje is a Buddhist and a member of Sōka Gakkai International.
Kehinde Wiley
- Kehinde Wiley
He earned his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and his MFA from Yale University, School of Art in 2001. Wiley’s painting style has been compared to that of such traditional portraitists as Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian and Ingres. The Columbus Museum of Art, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007, describes his work with the following: “Kehinde Wiley has gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture.”
Taio Cruz
- Jacob Taio Cruz
In October 2009, Cruz released his follow-up album Rokstarr, which includes the number one singles “Break Your Heart” and “Dynamite“. Cruz has collaborated with Kesha and Fabolous on the single “Dirty Picture“, as well as Kylie Minogue and Travie McCoyon his single “Higher“. Cruz was born in London, to a Nigerian father and a Brazillian mother. Cruz began writing songs when he was 12, Cruz is the founder and chief executive of Rokstarr Music London, which in 2006 released his debut single “I Just Wanna Know“.
Omarosa Manigault
- Omaroseonee Manigault
David Oyelowo
- David Oyelowo
Tunde Baiyewu
- Bababtunde Emmanuel Baiyewu
In 2005, he appeared on the BBC Television one-off special, Strictly African Dancing. He came last, but he learned the Bata dance in the process. In March 2007, Baiyewu married Tope Adeshina, a young Nigerian model, in Lagos, Nigeria. They live in the UK while his mother went on to marry former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo who, like both her and Baiyewu himself, is of the Yoruba ethnic group.
Tinie Tempah
- Patrick Junior Chukwuemeka Okogwu
In November 2013, he released his second album, titled Demonstration, preceded by singles “Trampoline” and “Children of the Sun“, which debuted at number three and six in the UK respectively. Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu was born in London, England, on 7 November 1988, to parents from Ibusa, Delta State, Nigeria. At 12 years old, Okogwu conceived his stage name under which to make music after viewing the music video for So Solid Crew‘s “21 Seconds“. Okogwu used a thesaurus in class, juxtaposing “tempah” (temper), which he saw under “angry”, with “tinie” (tiny), to ameliorate the aggressive sound of “tempah”.
Regarding his London upbringing, Tempah states, “London is one of the only places in the world where you can live in a council block and see a beautiful semi-detached house across the street. Growing up around that was inspirational, it kept me motivated”.
Hakeem Kae-Kazeem
- Hakeem Kae-Kazim
Kae-Kazim has landed role in movies like:
- Coming To America (1989)
- King Solomon’s Mines (2004)
- Hotel Rwanda (2004)
- The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines (2006)
- Big Fellas (2007)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
- 24: Redemption (2008)
- Darfur (2009)
- The Fourth Kind (2009)
- X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
- Inale (2010)
- Girl Soldier (2011)
- Last Flight to Abuja (2012)
- Half of a Yellow Sun (2013
- 24 (season 7) (2009)
- Lost (2006)
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2007)
- Criminal Minds (2011)
- NCIS: Los Angeles (2011)
- Human Target (season 2; episode 3) (2010)
- The Front Line (2006)
- Covert Affairs (season 3; episode 3) (2012)
- Strike Back: Project Dawn (2012)
- Sophie Okonedo
Okonedo was born in London, the daughter of Joan (née Allman), a pilates teacher, and Henry Okonedo (1939–2009), who worked for the government. Her father was Nigerian, and her mother, an Ashkenazi Jew, was born in the East-End, to Yiddish-speaking immigrants from Poland and Russia. Okonedo was brought up in her mother’s Jewish faith. When she was five years old, her father left the family, and she was brought up in relative poverty by her single mother (“but we always had books,” she has said).
Okonedo was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours. Okonedo has three children, from a previous relationship. They live in Muswell Hill, London. On her heritage, Sophie says, “I feel as proud to be Jewish as I feel to be black” and calls her daughter an “Irish, Nigerian Jew”. Her father Henry died on 22 July 2009 in Orlando, Florida, USA.
Femi Oke
- Femi Oke
Femi began her career at age 14 working as a junior reporter for the United Kingdom’s first talk radio station LBC. During 1993 Femi worked for a cable station called Wire TV, this was pre-Janet Street Porter’s L!VE TV. Femi presented several shows for the station, including the popular Soap on the Wire on a Saturday afternoon, with soap opera expert Chris Stacey. In the early 1990s, Femi presented the BBC’s flagship educational science programme Science In Action and was also a presenter of Top of the Pops. She has also worked for GMTV, London Weekend Television, Men & Motors and Carlton Television. She joined CNN in 1999, and worked there until 2008. She has accepted an invitation to teach on behalf of the World Meteorological Organization in Buenos, Aires, Argentina, conducted guest lectures forEmory University in Atlanta and been a guest speaker at the United Nations, addressing the World Food Programme in Rome, Italy.
Gabriel Agbonlahor
- Gabriel Agbonlahor
Agbonlahor was one of four children born to a Nigerian father and a Scottish mother in Birmingham. However his parents separated while he was still young and he lived with his father, without any contact with his mother for around 20 years. In 2009, ahead of the striker’s 23rd birthday, his mother made a public appeal to him via the Sunday Mercurynewspaper, in order to become part of his life once more.[59][dead link] Agbonlahor later contacted his mother and the pair reconciled.[60][dead link] Agbonlahor’s brother, Charisma, plays as a striker for Midlands Combination Premier League side Earlswood Town FC.[61][62]
Carmen Ejogo
- Carmen Elizabeth Ejogo
- Adaora udoji
- Adaora Udoji
Udoji founded The Boshia Group, a network of content and operational strategists, producers and storytellers. An award winning journalist, Udoji is a graduate of UCLA School of Law. She is among a small group of journalists who have worked in network and cable news, as well as public radio. She’s lived on three continents including Africa, Europe and North America; and holds dual American & Irish citizenship. Born to father Godfrey Udoji, former chief engineer for the city of Dearborn, Michigan, and mother Mary, former director of Washtenaw County Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. In 2002, she married fellow television journalist Ron Allen of NBC News.
Merci!
ReplyDeleteahah i still know ppl like Wale,Chamillionaire,Agbolanhor, Hakeem Olajuwon "The Dream,Hakeem Kae Kazeem- knew him better in.Last flight to Abuja wih Omotola...
ReplyDeleteCool....
DeleteUzo Adoba AKA Crazy eyes is missing from the list ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkMalZbifhg)
ReplyDeleteWatch out for part 2 hun!!! x
DeleteTenx for this info Toyeeenbee, ur posts ar always unik, entertaining and informative, well done.
ReplyDelete