Genevieve Nnaji//ⓘ (/ˈnɑːdʒi/;[1] born on 3 May 1979)[2] is a Nigerian actress, producer, and director.[3][4][5] She won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2005, making her the first actor to win the award.[6][7][8] In 2011, she was honoured as a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic by the Nigerian government for her contributions to Nollywood.[9] Her directorial debut movie, Lionheart, is the first Netflix film from Nigeria and the first Nigerian submission for the Oscars. The movie was disqualified for having most of its dialogue in English.[10][11] After having spent decades in the movie industry, she was profiled alongside some celebrities and business executives in 2020 in two new books by publisher and Editor in Chief of Yes International! magazine, Azuh Arinze.[12]
Early life
Genevieve was born in Mbaise, Imo State, located in the southeast region of Nigeria, and grew up in Lagos, southwest Nigeria. The fourth of eight children, she was raised in a middle-class family; her father worked as an Engineer and her mother was a nursery school teacher.[13]
Nnaji started her acting career as a child actor in the then-popular television soap opera Ripples at the age of 8.[14] In 1998, at the age of 19, she was introduced into the growing Nigerian film industry with the movie Most Wanted.[15] Her subsequent movies include Last Party, Mark of the Beast, and Ijele.[14] In 2010, she starred in the award-winning film Ijé: The Journey. She has starred in over 200 Nollywood movies.[16]
In 2004, Nnaji signed a recording contract with EKB Records; a Ghanaian record label, and released her debut album One Logologo Line.[17] It is a mix of R&B, Hip-Hop, and Urban music.[18] In 2004, Genevieve Nnaji was with the most votes after contending with other celebrities for the search for the face of Lux in 2004.[19]
In 2005, she won the Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Actress in a Leading Role, becoming the first actress to win the award.[20]
Genevieve at an event in 2009
In 2009, Nnaji was one of the best-paid female actors in Nollywood.[21][22] Due to her contributions to the Nigerian movie industry, she became the first actor to be awarded Best Actress at the 2001 City People's Awards, the award ceremony that previously had only recognized politicians and business conglomerates. She was also the first actor to be awarded as Best Actress by the Censors Board of Nigeria in 2003.[23] In 2009, she was referred to as the Julia Roberts of Africa by Oprah Winfrey.[24][25]
Genevieve Nnaji is also a women's activist. She advocates for Nigerian girls to be able to have a say in who they choose to marry. She is against early marriages for the girl child. She is strongly against the abuse of women in society.[30][31] Genevieve says she is a strong advocate for social justice.[32] Further, Genevieve Nnaji is a strong feminist. She states her type of feminism is the woman who has the right to make her own choices and do whatever she feels like.[33]
Modelling
Nnaji in one of her several modelling campaigns.
Nnaji has featured in several commercials, including for Pronto (beverage) and Omo detergent. In 2004, she became the "Face of Lux" in Nigeria[34] in a highly lucrative sponsorship deal.[8] In 2008, Nnaji launched the clothing line "St. Genevieve", which donates its proceeds to charity.[7][35] In May 2010, she was appointed to be the official "Face of MUD" in Nigeria.[36][37][38][39][40]
Nnaji has received several awards and nominations for her work, including the Best Actress of the Year Award at the 2001 City People Awards and the Best Actress in a Leading Role Award at the 2005 Africa Movie Academy Awards.[6][8]
In 2019, her movie, Lionheart, was selected by the Nigerian Oscars Selection Committee (NOSC), as Nigeria's submission to the Best International Feature Film Category of the 2020 Oscars. It was the first film ever submitted to the Oscars by Nigeria.[41]
Subsequently, the oscar submission was cancelled for not meeting the language criteria. The film's dialogue track is predominantly in the English language. However, the Oscar rules since 2006 dictate that eligible movies must have a "Predominantly non-English dialogue track." This move was an attempt to open up more opportunities for films from diverse cultures.
In a viral tweet on 4 November 2019, the Award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay, had questioned the Academy's decision on nixing Lionheart Oscar race for using its official language — English. Nnaji, in response to Ava DuVernay's Tweet, took to Twitter to explain that the country Nigeria as presently constituted, does boast of over 500 languages, making it so ethnically diverse than English, as the official language, can only be the language utilized to make the movie widely acceptable to the eclectic audience across the country, and even beyond the continent of Africa.
In an article published by Culture writer and multiculturalism scholar- Kovie Biakolo titled Nigeria's Lion Heart Disqualification is Bigger than the Oscars on the CNN opinion website; Kovie opined that "one cannot help but feel that Nigeria is ultimately being penalized for being a former British colony in using the very language that was imposed on its people, to communicate between them, and especially for art. Former French, Spanish and Portuguese colonies certainly don't have this problem. And in truth, the Academy may be demonstrating a short-sighted or surface-level understanding of its purported inclusivity in this category".[42]
She went further to criticize the Oscar board for allowing the nominations of British movies that were not done in English, which invariably is the Country's main language but did so in the case of Nigeria whose cultural diversity could be confounding yet true.
with Segun Arinze – this film received 10 nominations at the Africa Movie Academy Awards in 2008, including Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Screenplay, Best Edit, Best Costumes, and Best Sound[44]
^"Nollywood's finest". New Vision. Kampala, Uganda: New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited. 1 May 2005. Archived from the original on 1 October 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
^Polycarp, Nwafor (2 January 2019). "Genevieve Nnaji marks 20 years in Nollywood". Vanguard News Nigeria. Vanguard Media Limited, Nigeria. Vanguard Media Limited, Nigeria. Archived from the original on 20 March 2023. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
^Mignot, Elisa (25 December 2009). "Lagos, capitale de Nollywood". Le Monde (in French). Paris, France: Éric Fottorino. p. 16. Archived from the original on 6 April 2010. Retrieved 29 August 2010. L'actrice la mieux payée du Nigeria, Genevieve Nnaji, est la vedette de Tango with me.
^Onyebukwa, Vivian (29 May 2010). "MUD Cosmetics berths in Nigeria". Daily Sun. Lagos, Nigeria: The Sun Publishing Limited. Retrieved 29 August 2010.[1]
^"Richest Nollywood Actresses". AllAfrica.com. AllAfrica Global Media. 26 September 2010. Archived from the original on 30 September 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
