In the business of striking groundbreaking industry deals, no one does it like Mo Abudu. From hosting the popular talk show Moments With Mo to becoming the first woman to launch a pan-African TV channel, Abudu has become a towering figure in Nigerian film and entertainment. Over the last decade, the media mogul behind EbonyLife Group—hailed by CNN as “Africa’s Queen of Media” —has consistently worked to expand the industry by forging key partnerships both at home and globally. Here are 11 of her major deals:
1. The ELFIKE Film Collective
Back in 2016, Kemi Adetiba’s The Wedding Party premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The iconic romantic comedy revolving around Dunni (Adesua Etomi) and Dozie’s (Bankole “Banky W” Wellington) chaotic nuptials made 453 million naira at the box office, setting the record as the highest-grossing Nigerian film for four years straight. This was the product of a collaboration between Abudu’s EbonyLife Films, FilmOne Distribution, Inkblot Productions, and Koga Studios, under the umbrella of the ELFIKE Film Collective.
A year later, the group struck gold again by co-producing a sequel, The Wedding Party 2: Destination Dubai, currently the fifth highest-grossing Nigerian film of all time.
2. Sony Pictures Television
Mo Abudu first announced a three-project co-development deal with Sony Pictures Television in March 2018, starting with The Dahomey Warriors, an upcoming action series inspired by the historical Dahomey Amazons—an all-female troop of elephant hunters and warriors from the ancient Dahomey Kingdom (modern-day Benin, West Africa) that existed between 1625 and 1894.
Later in 2021, the media mogul signed another two-year exclusive contract for a scripted TV series with the global production company, marking Africa’s first-ever “first-look deal” with a major Hollywood studio. That same year, Abudu and SPT created the ÀLÓ Initiative for African writers, and Mary Waireri’s Exiles was selected for development in 2023.
3. Netflix
In 2020, EbonyLife became the first production house in Africa to ink a multi-title TV and film contract with Netflix. This partnership covered the production of two original series alongside film adaptations of Lola Shoneyin’s hit novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s stage play, Death and the King’s Horseman (reimagined as Biyi Bandele’s Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman in 2022).
Several other projects produced by Abudu were licensed to the streaming platform, including Fifty (2015), The Governor (2016), Sons of the Caliphate (2016), On the Real (2016), The Royal Hibiscus Hotel (2017), Castle & Castle (2018), reality show Dating Game Nigeria (2018), Your Excellency (2019), and Oloture (2019). Further collaboration with Netflix led to the release of projects like Castle & Castle Season 2 (2021), Blood Sisters (2022), Chief Daddy 2: Going for Broke (2022), A Sunday Affair (2023), WAR: Wrath and Revenge (2023), and Oloture: The Journey (2024).
Abudu also announced the start of a new Netflix documentary, Black, Brilliant and Bold, in 2023, kicking off with an exclusive interview with the Director-General of the World Trade Organization, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Then, in March of this year, Netflix announced another of Abudu’s upcoming projects, The Baby Farm, as part of its production lineup.
4. AMC Networks
In January 2020, American entertainment company AMC Networks teamed up with Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife to create Nigeria 2099, an afrofuturistic crime-drama penned by Launch Pad Alum Ahmadu Garba.
According to EbonyLife Studios, the series follows Sgt. Charles Opkara, “a local police officer in a poor district of Lagos assigned to protect a visiting American businessman staking out his district, Sgt. Charles begins to unravel a global conspiracy over depleting resources.” The project is still in development.
5. BBC Studios
Mo Abudu’s developmental deal with BBC Studios in November 2021 led to the creation of a six-part series titled Reclaim, written by BAFTA Breakthrough Brit, Rowan Athale (The Rise) according to an original idea by Abudu, Heidi Uys, and Bode Asiyanbi.
Reclaim focuses on Idia Nicole Inneh, the daughter of a billionaire art collector who takes over her father’s life mission to recover four stolen ivory masks of Queen Idia, the first Queen Mother of the Benin Empire. To obtain the valuable artifacts from museums in Britain, Germany, and the USA and return them to Nigeria, she assembles a diverse team of questionable characters, including a renowned art thief, an art expert, a con artist, and a logistics specialist.
The series is set partly in the UK and is currently in development.
6. Lagos State Government
In 2021, Abudu launched the EbonyLife Creative Academy (ELCA) with the support of the Lagos State Government Creative Industry Initiative (LACI) under the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture. The Academy offers free courses in filmmaking and media production to both newcomers and industry professionals, equipping them with the practical skills needed to excel in the Nigerian and global markets.
7. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Studios
Also in 2021, the EbonyLife CEO joined forces with Hollywood’s Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Studio to co-produce a slate of global film and TV projects connected to Africa. According to Deadline, the ground-breaking deal will produce at least one film and two TV projects, including Dada Safaris, The Gods, and Are We Getting Married?
Dada Safaris is an ‘Afropolitan’ dramedy series that follows four best friends who, after finding themselves at personal and career dead ends, take a leap to the wild side when one of them inherits her late husband’s long-forgotten family-owned safari lodge and invites her friends to join her newfound purpose—renovating and relaunching the business.
The Gods, another series, revolves around a pair of married Cambridge professors who set out to find answers to a surge of natural disasters but find seven long-forgotten African gods instead. Enlisting the help of two divine African children who can communicate with the immortals, the unlikely team must find the secret behind the awakening of the gods before the world as they know it is forever changed.
The third project, a comedy feature titled Are We Getting Married?, is set in the U.S. It tells the story of the daughter of an embarrassingly wealthy Nigerian family who falls in love with a nerdy but charming African American from Atlanta and their decision to get married. While the couple hopes for an intimate ceremony, their parents have other ideas, and they are faced with the option of either standing their ground or agreeing to have the big Yoruba-by-way-of-Atlanta wedding they never wanted.
8. Will Packer Productions and Universal Pictures
EbonyLife and the record-breaking Will Packer Productions (Girls Trip, Straight Outta Compton, Think Like A Man) acquired the rights to a Bloomberg article about Nigerian Instagram influencer Ramon “Hushpuppi” Abbas in 2021.
“The Fall of the Billionaire Gucci Master,” written by Evan Ratliff, is a compelling piece that details how the influencer allegedly pulled off a scam to launder millions of dollars. Abudu and WPP secured the rights after a fierce bidding war, and filming of an untitled globe-trotting action series, inspired by films like Catch Me If You Can (2002) and The Usual Suspects (1995), is set to take place in conjunction with Universal Pictures.
9. Starz and Lionsgate
Later that year, Mo Abudu announced the production of a drama series based on the 17th-century African Warrior Queen Nzinga of Ndongo, in partnership with Starz and Lionsgate. Abudu is set to executive produce the series alongside American superstar Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson, Spartacus creator Steven S. DeKnight, and Gods of America actress Yetide Badaki. Badaki will portray the fierce Angolan queen who led a 40-year war against her enemies, while 50 Cent will also have a role in the series.
10. Idris Elba’s Green Door Productions
In March 2023, EbonyLife and renowned British actor, producer, and director Idris Elba’s Green Door Productions forged a partnership to spotlight African and diasporan talent by creating a slate of authentic, Afro-centric movies and TV series designed for a global audience. They also aim to empower emerging talent through the EbonyLife Creative Academy in Lagos.
A year later, in 2024, the duo sealed a new collaboration with CANEX (Creative Africa Nexus), a pan-African initiative under the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), to produce a short film titled Dust to Dreams, featuring award-winning British singer Seal (Kiss from a Rose, Stand by Me), Nse Ikpe-Etim, Eku Edewor, Atlanta Bridget Johnson, and former Nigerian Idol contestant Constance “Konstance” Olatunde. Directed by Elba and produced by Abudu (with Heidi Uys, Temidayo Makanjuola, Inem King, and Vanessa Demme), the film tells the story of a mother and her teenage daughter who is meeting her father for the first time. It is currently in post-production.
11. Nile Media Entertainment Group
Most recently, in August 2024, Abudu revealed a collaboration with Moses Babatope’s Nile Media Group to create a luxury cinema experience called “The Pods.”
The Pods will provide an exclusive and comfortable experience with plush reclining seats and private viewings of carefully selected films. Nile and EbonyLife aim to captivate audiences and reshape African entertainment by introducing ten Pods annually over the next five years.
