Genevieve Nnaji is a Nigerian actress, producer, and director. 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. In 2011, she was honoured as a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic by the Nigerian government for her contribution to Nollywood.
The 40-year-old who started acting as an eight-year-old, in the popular TV soap Ripple, has starred in more than 80 films over the last two decades and her rise to prominence coincided with the exponential growth of Nollywood.
When her directorial debut movie, Lionheart was nominated for the Oscars, Nnaji described it as a “pivotal moment in the history of Nigerian cinema”. Lionheart, in which Nnaji also stars, is largely in English, with an 11-minute section in Igbo – was later rejected by the academy because films in the best international feature film category must have “a predominantly non-English dialogue track”.
In Azuh Arinze’s book, Success Is Not Served A La Carte, Genevieve Nnaji’s rise to success is documented. The book is an enlightening collection of one on one interview sessions with 30 high-profiled individuals in the country including; Christopher Kolade of Cadbury/LBS, Tony Ezenna of Orange Drugs, Anselm Madubuko of Revival Assembly, Steve Babaeko of X3M Ideas, Film director, Tade Ogidan, veteran actors, Olu Jacobs, Pete Edochie and Dele Odule, to name a few. The book explores the success stories of these individuals, and also provides key insights into their lives.
