Alice Iyabo Ojo popularly called Iyabo Ojo is a popular face in Nollywood Yoruba movies. In this post, we take a look at the life of this screen goddess, her career and the movies that she has featured in.
Early Life
Iyabo Ojo was born in Lagos on the 21st of December 1977. She is the youngest of three children with her older siblings being boys.
Education
Ojo attended National College in Lagos before proceeding to the Lagos State Polytechnic where she studied Estate Management.
When she was studying at LASPOTECH, she worked part time as a sales girl but later got a job as a secretary. The actress revealed that she was very hardworking; as a result she was promoted to the position of site manager. But she later lost the job not too long after because they decided to replace her with a male.
It was at this point, she decided to start her own business when she began buying and selling clothes. She had to work hard to make ends meet because she had 2 kids to take care of.
She started the business with N30,000 and she was able to use the proceeds of the business to take care of her kids.
Movies
Ojo has featured in over 150 movies till date. She has also produced 14 of her own movies from this number.
Prior to launching her acting career, Ojo featured prominently in the drama group of her secondary school.
When she decided to start her career officially, she went to meet Bimbo Akintola and told her of her intention of becoming an actress.
Afterwards, she registered with the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) and with the assistance of Bimbo Akintola she was able to network with many other people in the industry.
Her first role came in the movie, Satanic which was released in 1998. Four years later, she debuted in the Yoruba language industry when she featured in Baba Darijinwon.
In 2004, Ojo ventured into movie production with her first movie, Bolutife. She also produced other movies like Bofeboko, Ololufe, Esan and Okunkun Biribiri.
In 2015, the actress made her cinema debut with the movie Silence, which featured the likes of Joseph Benjamin, Alex Usifo, Fathia Balogun, and Doris Simeon.
The movie premiered at the Silverbird Cinemas, Ikeja, Lagos.
Personal Life
The actress got married to a Lagos-based movie marketer in 1999. At that time, she was just 21 years old. After her marriage, Ojo had to take a break from acting following the birth of her son and daughter.
According to the actress, she married her husband because she was pregnant for him. She had a son in 1999 and a daughter in 2001 but she divorced her husband a few years later because she wasn’t happy with the marriage.
Ojo has stated that she intends to give marriage a chance but she won’t marry a poor man as her celebrity lifestyle doesn’t come cheap.
According to Ojo, she doesn’t need her husband to be very rich but he should be able to take care of both of them and he should also be more successful than she is.
Pinkies Foundation
In 2011, Iyabo Ojo launched her foundation, Pinkies Foundation which specializes in taking care of children with special needs as well as the less privileged.
Movies
Some of her movies include:
- Satanic (1998)
- Agogo Ide (1998)
- Okanla (2013)
- Silence (2015)
- Beyond Disability (2015)
- Black Val
- Bolutife
- Arinzo
- Apo Owo
- Awusa (2016)
- Tore Ife (Love)
- Trust (2016)
- Ore (2016)
- Ipadabo (2016)
Awards
- Best Cross Over Actress at the African Film Awards in UK, 2007
- BOTRA Award for Excellent Performance on Stage, 2011
- Best Feature Film (Omo Gomina) Abuja International Film Festival, 2011
- Deluxe Magazine Award of Excellence and Recognition, 2011
- Best Actress in a supporting role, BON Awards, 2012
- CAMA Best Actress of the Year, 2013
- Best Movie of the Year, Silence, BON Awards, 2014
- Africa MouthPiece Woman of the Year, 2015
Business
The actress recently ventured into the hospitality business when she opened her amala joint, Abula Spot.
Ojo acquired a two-storey building prior to starting the business. There were rumours that she had to take a loan to fund the business. But she has since refuted the claims as she disclosed the building was funded by her savings and the sale of some her properties and personal assets
Her other business include general catering services, a bar and lounge, spa, makeup studio and event management.
The building was inaugurated by the first Lady of Kwara State. Also, Ojo disclosed that she decided to open an amala joint because she’s a local chic and she believes amala is the in thing.
According to her, amala is part of her culture and people love to eat amala. The actress said she noticed that there were many amala joint on the Island so she saw it as an opportunity for her in business.
She had to close one of her shops on the mainland in order to open the Island business.
Children
Iyabo Ojo has two children. The first child, Festus is 19 years old while his younger sister, Priscilla is 17 years old.
Her kids are already into movies especially her daughter who has featured in several movies. Festus has only featured in one movie so far, Beyond Disabilities.
Best Friend
At a time, Iyabo Ojo’s best friend was Lara Olukotun. The two were often seen together at most events until recently.
There are claims that the Lara stopped being friends with Ojo because of popular musician, Pasuma.
Although the details aren’t yet clear, it is obvious that the two are no longer best of friends. In fact, Lara has deleted Ojo from the list of her friends on her Instagram account and the duo havent been attending each other’s events ever since the fracas.
Family
Ojo puts her family first which is her kids at the expense of her acting career. The actress revealed that every producer she has worked with knows that she doesn’t sleep at the movie location at night. Also, she doesn’t do weekend jobs except on rare occasions. According to the actress, she only sleeps at the movie location 3 times in a year.