Woman Crush Sunday: Genevieve Nnaji!

This is Genevieve Nnaji, a Nigerian actress, director, producer, activist and model, She was  born on the 3rd of May, 1979, She is an indigene of Mbaise, Imo State, Nigeria but  grew up in Lagos State, Nigeria. She is the fourth of eight children born into a middle class family of an Engineer father and a nursery School teacher mother. She attended Methodist Girls College (Yaba, Lagos State), She also got her first degree in Creative Arts from the University of Lagos, while at the University, She began auditioning for  acting jobs in Nollywood although she was acting as a child in the 1980's . This beautiful actress is a single mother of a beautiful daughter called Chimebuka Theodora Nnaji that has a striking resemblance of her, the daughter got married to Prince Chigozie Ikediwa in 2016.

Genevieve Nnaji who started as a Child  actor in 1987 was introduced into the growing Nigerian film industry in 1998, her first movie was  'Most Wanted', she  has then featured in over 200 Nollywood movies such as Last Party, Mark of the beast, Ijele, Ije, Lion's heart and so on. Although she was severed with the stigma of being a mother at a  teenage age with no father, she has a lot of achievements to her credits.

 In 2001, Genevieve was awarded the Best actress by the City People's award that previously had only recognised politicians and business conglomerates. In 2003, She was awarded the Best Actress by Censors Board of Nigeria.

she suffered a major setback in 2004 when she was blacklisted by a powerful cartel of film studios in Nigeria, along with several other A-list actors. With no producer brave enough to go against the studios, Genevievei found herself out of a job - so she decided to move into music, releasing an album called One Logologo Line.Her one and only album is best remembered for the track No More, a love song with lyrics that could be seen as metaphor for the rest of her career: "No more crying oh, No more fighting oh, No more tears oh, I got my freedom, power and more." 

In 2005, She won the Africa Movie Academy Award( AMAA), she also won the award of the Best Actress by African Movie Academy Award. In 2009, She became one of the best paid female actors in Nollywood and was regarded as the Julian Roberts of Africa by Oprah Winfrey . In 2011, she won the Zulu African Awards for Best Actress, In 2013, She won the Best actress leading role by Nollywood and African Film Countries Awards.

 In 2015, she became a producer with her first movie titled Road to Yesterday, in 2016, this movie won the award of the  Best movie overall, West Africa by African magic viewers awards. In 2018, one of her movies; Lion's heart was acquired by Netflix and was  Netflix's  first original film from Nigeria.  In 2019, her movie, Lion's heart was selected as Nigeria's submission to the best international feature film category organised by Oscar but was cancelled because the movie has it's dialogue majorly in English. Just recently, she was named an ambassador for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2020 among other selected movie stars such as David Oyelowo, Nicole Kidman and Priyanka Chopra.

She has faced a lot of social media scandal; she has been accused severally of dating top politicians, celebrities but none of these accusations have been proven.

As a Model, she had featured in several commercials like Pronto and Omo detergents, She was the 'face of lux' under a highly lucrative sponsorship deal in 2004. In 2008, she launched her clothing line " St. Genevieve " which donates it's proceeds to Charity. In 2010, She was appointed as ' Face of MUD' In Nigeria. In 2012, she was appointed as the ambassador of Range Rover in Nigeria. She has represented other brands such as Cintrion Energy drink, Etisalat, Polo and Amstel Malta. 

As an activist, She advocates for Nigerian girls to be able to have a say in whom they choose to marry, She is also an activist against Early girl child marriage and abuse of women in the society.

Genevieve Nnaji;  Nollywood's first billionaire and richest Nigerian actor whose net worth is estimated to be about 550 million dollars can be described as a strong woman, a strong activist and an advocate for social justice,  in her words" I am a product of Nollywood and my loyalty remains unshaken, She also said" Every woman has a right to make her own choices".

It is common to see celebrities constantly go on social media to announce their latest achievements from house properties, fancy rides and expensive vacations. While this is often done to keep their fans and followers abreast with their activities, there are some who live for social media validation, Genevieve has proven that one can pull some big money moves without splashing it all over the internet and for this one truth, I love Genny, I mean don't we all? You can also make the right choice now, after all, the future is female!