Omotola, Mo Abudu feature in Variety’s Women’s Impact Report
Two Nigerians, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde and Mo Abudu are among 50 women featured in Variety’s International Women’s Impact report. Ekeinde, an actress, is an icon in the Nollywood film industry. But she says, “at heart, I think I am an activist first.” An ambassador for the U.N.’s World Food Program and campaigner for Amnesty International, […]
Two Nigerians, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde and Mo Abudu are among 50 women featured in Variety’s International Women’s Impact report.
Ekeinde, an actress, is an icon in the Nollywood film industry. But she says, “at heart, I think I am an activist first.” An ambassador for the U.N.’s World Food Program and campaigner for Amnesty International, she has used her big-screen platform to drive her humanitarian goals. Her next step is developing a film village in the former slave port of Badagry, where she wants young Nigerians to hone their filmmaking skills while learning about “our rights and future as Africans,” she says. “I continue to explore ways we truly can be liberated and prosperous.”
Mo Abudu, on the other hand, who is Founder, EbonyLife, used her star-making springboard as the face of daytime talkie “Moments With Mo” to launch the EbonyLife empire, with a film production unit and upscale lifestyle TV network; she’s been dubbed the Oprah of Africa. “As a woman in a male-dominated industry, I have had to be strong, focused and relentless, and work twice as hard as the men around me,” she says. Determined to push for gender parity in the Nigerian biz, she estimates that nearly 80 per cent of “key positions” at EbonyLife are filled by women. This year she will unveil a mentoring scheme to support the next generation of young women in film and broadcasting.
Other international superstars mentioned in the report include actresses like Salma Hayek (Mexico/France), Nicole Kidman (Australia), Lupita Nyong’o (Kenya/Mexico), Deepika Padukone (India), among others.
Variety is the foremost film magazine in the United States.