Minutes into my hour-long conversation with Chimezie Imo, his attention got split. A man was warmly raving about his performance in BB Sasore’s Breath of Life. For the few minutes this audience-to-actor conversation lasted, I got an insight into Imo’s routine experience with enthusiastic Nigerians. Singular and seemingly trivial, the man’s acknowledgement of Imo’s performance and that familiar eagerness to share it, is a telling reality of the average Nigerian’s patriotism towards the Nigerian film industry and its practitioners. And, for the actor who won the 2024 Trailblazer Award at African Magic Viewers Choice Award (AMVCA), this experience is a testament to his eloquent acting in the film as Elijah.
Acting began for Imo within the confines of his childhood church in Northern Nigeria. The leader of the church’s drama group, His Majesty Drama Group, needed a child actor replacement. 8-year-old Imo seized the role and has never looked back. Decades later, with numerous projects and awards to his name as a professional actor, he fragmentarily recalls playing the role of a house help in that church play. Unaware, the entrapped church members spurred his decision to be an actor.
“Even at that young age, there was this satisfaction and connection I felt watching the church members cry. And, I instinctively knew I wanted to continually act,” he said with a nostalgia-ridden voice. In 2014, after countless outings with the drama group, his late friend encouraged him to apply for the Next Movie Star Reality Show and got him the form. He was selected and finished the show as a runner-up. From there, Imo began a spirited movement into the Nigerian film industry.
Since his debut on-screen performance in Ndu Scott’s Learning Curves, he has swiftly moved from one role to the other. Shuga Naija gave him unprecedented popular acceptance in 2018. That same year, in Ema Edosio’s Kasala!, alongside Tomiwa Tegbe, Mike Afolarin and Emeka Nwagbaraocha, he played the role of a Nigerian teenager. Still in the teenager-sphere roles, in 2019, he played the role of a drug-bewildered teenager with measurable believability in Tope Alake’s Nimbe. In this film, an unusual silence and passion hang around his words and performance. Commendably, this role landed him nominations for Best Actor Nominee at The Future Awards Africa 2020 and Most Promising Young Actor at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) 2020. What ties Imo’s earliest roles together is that from Shuga, Kasala!, to Nimbe, he wore the robe of a Nigerian teenager facing internal and external pressure associated with teenagehood. Imo enjoyed this phase of his career until 2023 when Orimz’s Choke came.
Imo calls Orimz’s Choke, where he wore the identity of a sickle cell patient, his most tasking project. In various interviews, he has described it as his most challenging role; watching the film, it’s easy to observe why. Fittingly, he was nominated, in 2023, for the Best Actor in a Drama at the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award, a list he shared with industry veterans like Chidi Mokeme, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Femi Adebayo and Richard Mofe-Damijo.
The above-listed roles, nominations and awards are footsteps propelling his career movements. Observing his filmography and its associated history, one will notice how each project deposits mainstream appeal and acceptance into his career. Unsurprisingly, the actor ended 2024 starring in three films that closed the year which include Daniel Oriahi’s A Ghetto Love Story and two December blockbusters Adebayo Tijani’s Alakada: Bad and Boujee and Funke Akindele and Tunde Olaoye’s Everybody Loves Jenifa.
Another marker of Imo’s career surge is his recent Trailblazer Award at the 2024 AMVCA. When I asked him if this was another career-defining moment for him, he acknowledged the recognition and understood the hope and confidence winning an award gives to young actors. But, he doesn’t see winning them as that. “I’m really grateful for what the Trailblazer Award meant to so many people more than seeing it as a career-defining moment. It’s a step in the right direction and I’m grateful for it. But to whom much is given, much is expected,” he told me.
Has the Trailblazer Award elevated his status in the industry? He doesn’t think so. As much as the importance of winning the award represents to him, he is not distracted by it, but more focused on working every day. “I don’t know how the award affected my status but I guess people know me more now. People recognize me as ‘the trailblazer award winner’ but I don’t focus on that, I’m just focused on working.”
Imo is the man of the moment. Taking on the role of the younger version of Wale Ojo’s character in Oriahi’s A Ghetto Love Story, a drug courier in Akindele’s Everybody Loves Jenifa, and a brief henchman performance in Abraham’s Alakada: Bad and Boujee, is no small feat. And, it’s remarkable how he has ardently promoted the three films. Speaking about the three films, he mentioned how excited he is about the films and the roles, unmindful of the minimal presence of his characters in the three films. Though he has minimal screen time in A Ghetto Love Story, Alakada: Bad and Boujee and more screen time in Everybody Loves Jenifa, he doesn’t believe there are any small roles. “So long as it’s a great story, sign me up. I’ll love to be a part of telling it even if it’s just my finger in it,” he remarked.
A careful observation of Nollywood will reveal how the “booked and busy” tagline is frequently used for Nollywood A-List and commercial actors. The workings of the film industry encourage and compel actors to take multiple jobs within the same timeline. Due to the draining demands of taking multiple roles in the same timeline, as Imo admits, business-wise, it’s an interesting position to be in. As he will inform me, taking multiple jobs is a worldwide practice. “Juggling two or more sets is usually not the best for the actor, especially when the actor tries to immerse themselves in the various roles. But I’ve been doing that for years now and I understand the technique. You wouldn’t know if I didn’t tell you,” he mentioned.
However, he casually acknowledges how this can affect an actor’s performance. From personal experience, he shares how he was working on two other projects while filming Funke Akindele’s Everybody Loves Jenifa. Although juggling multiple roles at the same time comes with its hurdles, what he does (and shares for others to possibly imbibe) is intimately understanding the character and being in the character’s headspace when he is in a specific location. This, as he told me, keeps him grounded into giving worthwhile performances. “I hope I don’t have to constantly do it. But, I have been doing it,” he said. “I don’t know what ‘in-demand actor’ means. I just get work and I work a lot. I love working but if people consider me that then I think that’s a good thing,” he concluded when probed further about his in-demand status. His response is reminiscent of an actor who, though acknowledging the accolades, is keenly concerned about working.
A glance through Imo’s recent filmography might present a justifiable assumption that the actor has been safely boxed into repetitively playing similar emotional roles. Watch Tope Alake’s Nimbe, Kasum’s One Too Many and Sasore’s Breath of Life. But, the actor doesn’t view this from a negative lens. In an interview with Pulse Nigeria, he detailed why he doesn’t consider stereotypical roles a “bad thing.” As we spoke about this, his perception is still steadfast. “I’m of the opinion that stereotyping is not really a bad thing, especially in the movie scene, because it only means that you’re really good at something, and everyone can tell, and it’s okay to be good at one thing.” Interestingly, he ended that statement with a caveat about the intimate urge of actors yearning for more when he added, “there’s so much an actor has that you don’t want to be kept in a box.”
Imo doesn’t believe it’s the unavailability of stories that allows filmmakers to regurgitate familiar genres and by extension actors playing well-worn roles. As he mentioned, there are numerous stories that haven’t been made because filmmakers are possibly fearful of its commercial viability. Referencing Choke, he mentioned how during the filmmaking journey, Chris Odeh, the producer, kept mentioning how shooting a psychological thriller was an experiment to gauge Nigerians’ interest in the genre. Eventually, the film suffered at the box office despite its warm reception. “There are stories available in Nollywood. But, I think filmmakers are scared to make them because of their marketability. I don’t think it’s an issue of story. It’s an issue of making back investments,” he summed up. While he said this, what this subtly indicated to me is that if filmmakers don’t outgrow this understandable fear or find alternative means, actors might keep repeating a similar role.
As evident in the latter parts of our conversation, Imo has started thinking about his filmmaking future. We spoke about his recent stepping into an executive producer role and owning a film production company, Vox Cinematic. Under Vox Cinematic, he has produced Strawberry Chinny, a romcom also starring Genoveva Umeh. The short film premiered at the Essence Film Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana in July 2024. Prior to that, Ibidunni Oladayo’s It Happened Again, a film he executive produced and stars in, went to the Festival International du Film Panafricain de Cannes and Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival where it picked five nominations including Best Movie Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Movie Trailer, and Best Nollywood Short Film. With these projects and others in its post-production phase, Imo’s move is comparable to the actor-producer strides of other actors like Funke Akindele, Toyin Abraham, Deyemi Okanlawon in 2024, and Timini Egbuson in 2025.
With each film, Imo keeps securing a spot for himself in Nollywood’s Hall of Fame lore. Not only is he strategically establishing himself, he’s also thinking of a possible retirement in the future. But, for now, Imo is basking in this moment whilst pining for work. “When I want to complain or be ungrateful for the year, I remember those milestones and become grateful,” he voiced. “I can be on my lane, mind my business and still succeed.”
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