Elizabeth Benson Ameye popularly called Liz Benson is a Nigerian evangelist and movie actress.
She was a screen goddess in the 90’s but suddenly disappeared from the movie scene which left many of her fans heartbroken. She has made a partial return to the industry in recent times but there’s certainly a lot about her life that you don’t know about.
In this post, we take a look at the life of this actress cum evangelist and how her career has evolved over the years.
Early Years
Liz Benson was born on the 29th of April 1966. She attended Sylvania State College in the United States of America where she bagged a degree in Dramatic Arts.
Career
Benson began acting as a 5 year old but she didn’t become popular until much later when she starred in the award winning television soap opera, Fortunes in 1993.
She played the role of Mrs. Agnes Johnson in the series which ran for about two years on the Nigerian Television Authority network.
Her role in Glamour Girls in 1994 was another one that shot her into limelight. The movie featured Benson alongside the likes of . After the release of this movie, the actress became quite popular and was much sought after in the Nigerian movie industry.
But Benson surprised everyone when she quit acting in 1996. The report at that time was that she had become born again and had decided to focus on ministry work.
Movies
Liz Benson’s first movie was Circle of Doom where she played a minor role in the movie. Recently, the actress starred in the movie, Busted which was released in 2017. She featured along side the likes of Kate Henshaw, Paul Obazele and Ik Ogbonna.
Benson has also done a little bit of movie production as well. She produced the movie, Eeku ida along with Tunji Bamishigbin
The actress has featured in both English and Yoruba Language movies in Nollywood. Below is a list of some of these movies.
- Back to Life (1997)
- Body of Vengeance
- Bridge-Stone (2005)
- Bridge-Stone 2 (2005)
- Chain Reaction (1999)
- Crazy Passion (2005)
- Crazy Passion 2(2005)
- Dapo Junior (2000)
- Day of Atonement (2005)
- Dearest Mummy (2015)
- Diamond Ring (1998)
- Diamond Ring 2 (1998)
- Dry (2014)
- Evil Men 1 and 2,
- Faces, Dead End,
- Glamour Girls (1994)
- Hilarious Hilary (2015)
- Inheritance (2004)
- Izaga, Burden,
- Lizard Life (2017)
- Melody of Life (2004)
- Morountodun
- Now & Forever 2 (2005)
- Now & Forever(2005)
- Political Control (2006)
- Political Control 2 (2006)
- Political Control 3 (2006)
- Red Hot (2004)
- Scores to Settle (1998)
- Shame, Conspiracy,
- Silenced
- Squad Twenty-Three (2005)
- Squad Twenty-Three 2 (2005)
- Stolen Child,
- Toko taya (2007)
- True Confession (1995)
- Turn Table (2004)
- Turn Table 2 (2004)
- Tycoon,
- Wisdom and Riches (2002)
- Wisdom and Riches 2 (2002)
- Witches (1998)
- Women in Power (2005)
- Women in Power 2 (2005)
- World Apart (2004)
- World Apart 2 (2004)
Marriage
Benson was married to Samuel Gabriel Etim who died in 1998. His death left with 3 children to cater for. But according to Benson, her late husband was a loving father and husband and his character as a person gave her the strength to go on and be there for her children.
One of Benson’s daughters, Lilian got married to her fiance, Precious a few years ago.
Benson would later met Bishop Great Emeya. Although, she was initially reluctant when he proposed, some things happened later on that dissipated her skepticism. The couple got married to Bishop Great Emeya on the 18th of July, 2009 after which they travelled to the United Kingdom for their honeymoon.
Bishop Emeya is the presiding Bishop of Rainbow Christian Asembly which is located in Warri, Delta State.
Currently, Benson works with her husband as an evangelist in Delta State with her husband where they run their ministry, Freedom Family Assembly.
According to Benson, her marriage to the Bishop has helped her into manifesting the call of God upon her life. The actress states that she knew she had always had the heart of service but she didn’t know she would eventually become a Pastor’s wife.
Life After Acting
Over the past few years, Benson hasn’t really featured in many movies unlike her early days in the industry. According to the actress, she says she has found purpose in counseling people based on the word of God and seeing it produce in their lives.
She states that she is filled with joy when she serves these people and sees their lives change. According to her, when God is working in your life and you are in total obedience to God, there’s an assurance from heaven that you can’t quantify.
Additionally, Benson has also decided to use her talent as an actress to glorify God by feature in movies that pass on good morals and propagate the gospel
So far, the actress has been involved in some movie projects that have being in alignment with her newfound faith. One of such is the movie, Living Funeral. The storyline of this movie is convey good morals and it is based on the her faith as a Christian.
After the movie was released, it fetched Benson eight nominations which include the Africa Magic Video Choice Awards AMVCA where the actress was nominated as the Best Supporting Actress in a Drama.
Nollywood
As a veteran in the industry, Benson spoke about some things about Nollywood during her last interview. According to the actress, she believes the industry has improved greatly compared to when she just began acting. She mentioned that there are now world class equipments and from the directing to the editing, Benson believes a thorough job is now being done.
On the other hand, she stated that there’s still a lot to be done in terms of the infrastructure for the movie industry.
Homosexualism
Benson is a vocal critic of homosexuals particularly in Nollywood where she believes it’s quite rampant. Although, some stars like Nse Ikpe Etim have been vocal about their support for homosexuals; Benson has remained an outspoken critic.