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By Christy Anyanwu
Theodore Ibekwe-Oyebade is a United Kingdom-based Nigerian who supports Black talent in the diaspora and serves as the founder/president of Actors’ Guild of UK Nollywood. She is also the brain behind the non-governmental organization, Diamonds and Pearls Charity Gala in London, UK, that supports the underprivileged.
Speaking with Sunday Sun, she opened up on her life and endeavours, her foray into entertainment and why she left Nigeria, among others.
How would you describe yourself? What do you do in the UK?
Let’s just say, right now, I’m a teacher. I teach. I work with an agency. I also do entertainment. I’m a movie producer. I produce, I organise events, I do charity balls to support charity and any organisation that actually needs support, especially those in Nigeria and in this place. I organise this yearly and I give cheques to them to carry on with the charity works they are doing.
I used to do beauty pageants but I have stopped because I don’t really break even. The pageant was usually very well done but I discovered I was spending more of my money and not making anything back at all. Then I also founded the Actors’ Guild of UK in Nollywood. We have an actors’ guild here and I am the founder. We bring people together and network and do something beneficial for everyone. I’m also one of the founding members of the Producers’ Guild; we have new Exco, which we are going to inaugurate soon and I’m the public relations officer of that one. It’s a platform we created so that people there can collaborate, network and showcase stories. Also, I have produced several movies like Shameful Deceit, Mother-in-law Wahala, and many others.
Entertainment is something that I really love. I have always wanted to be in the entertainment industry, even when I was growing up. My parents didn’t want that to happen, they always wanted their children to become doctors, professionals and all that. But at the end of the day, I still listened to them. I went to school. I studied education. I also read accounting. But I have not done anything in accounting before because it’s not something I really wanted to do. Well, as a teacher, I teach in this country. But still, my passion, my first love, is entertainment. I try my best to do everything in entertainment. So, I’m into media, entertainment, acting and producing.
You are a teacher. What time do you have to do all the other stuff?
I teach in the UK. You go to work 8:30am by 3:30pm you are done and you are free to do whatever you want you do. But then, with passion. any little time you have, you will still do that thing you know that gives you satisfaction and makes you happy, and you don’t get tired when you’re doing what you are passionate about. If it’s something you don’t love doing, no matter how much you earn, sometimes you will be tired. But passion can take you anywhere. As I speak, I have a Valentine’s Day event coming up. I have already planned it and, by the grace of God, it will hold on February 14, which is barely two weeks away. But still I’m going to school, doing what I’m doing. I’m doing every other thing I’m doing in the background. Other things that I have to do for people, like we’ll have the inauguration of the guild as well on the seventh. We’ll have some other people’s premieres that I’m involved in. Because they are all under that umbrella of entertainment, I don’t feel tired. I feel happy doing them because it’s a passion that makes me happy. And I’m a philanthropist as well. I do charity work and I support charities. That’s what I love to do, to make an impact in the life of somebody, and that gives me happiness and fulfilment.
How long have you been in the UK and what were you doing in Nigeria before you left for Europe?
When I was in Nigeria, I would say I graduated and worked briefly with Waterparks. I used to be the manager of Waterparks. I was managing the park. I was doing everything entertainment before I came to the UK. However, before I started working with Waterparks, I wanted to work in a bank. That was my first love, again. I wanted to be in the bank. I had interviews for a bank (name withheld) at the time. I don’t even like to talk about them because I don’t want to mention their names. One thing is, if you don’t have connections in Nigeria, you won’t get to the Promised Land. As intelligent as I was then, I did interviews and I passed. The interviews we did were mainly written interviews, although we had oral interviews later. The written interview then, I was told that I came tops. I was number one in the list. And when the results came out, the same day my name was first on the list; I was invited for an oral interview. The day I went for the oral interview, people that their name did not even come up on the board as people that passed the written interview were already working. They were already working.
I was number one on the list but I never got to do the interview. After the oral interview, I didn’t hear from them again. And then I contested it. I had to even send messages to the bank to say my views about everything that happened. They then called me for another interview, where I was interviewed by the chairman of the bank at the time. After that interview, I didn’t hear from them at all. I just knew that I did not have to pin them in the woods. It was just a personal problem. All that informed my decision to travel abroad. I was like, if my father knew nobody, I would not get nowhere in Nigeria, but in the Western world you don’t need to know anybody to do whatever you want to do. If you are looking for a job, you go to agencies, online, apply. They see that you are what they want; you will be given the job. Sometimes they don’t even know you. This time round, people find jobs online. You don’t even see the people that interviewed you. You don’t even know where the office is and you work remotely from home and you earn salaries every month. They pay you. They don’t even need to know who you are. All they want to know is that you can do that job that they want. So all of that informed my decision to leave Nigeria, to go where people will not be biased and I will get a job, if I am qualified. That’s how I left the country, which is exactly 25 years ago.
Then how did you enter the entertainment world abroad?
What happened when I came to the UK was that I went to an event. I went to a child-dedication event. When I got there, they were supposed to have an MC for the event. But the MC didn’t turn up until probably 8.30 in the evening. This event was meant to start at about 5pm. And there was someone that actually knew me there. He said, “I better tell these people to just allow you to do this thing. Because I know anything entertainment is your thing and I know you can do it”. And I just smiled. Then he asked me to be the MC. And I did it well. That was in 2001. As soon as I finished, a movie producer there came to meet me and said they told him that I was not really the MC for the day. I said, yes, I wasn’t. They just asked me to do it impromptu. He said I did it fantastically. Based on that, he said, “I have a movie coming up. I would like for you to be my lead actress”. That movie was called “Heavy Mama in London”. I just smiled. I think that happened in 2006. So I did the movie. I played the lead role. That was how my journey in acting started. I didn’t look for it. It just came to me on a platter. Today, I have produced two films to my name, my own films. And then I have co-produced with other people. So, I have been in many of the movies. I have co-produced over 20 movies. When I did the premiere of my first movie in 2013, that’s “Shameful Deceit”, we had over 2,000 people at the premiere in Odeon Cinema. It was massive.
How is entertainment faring in the UK?
Entertainment, I would say, is the same thing all over the world. If you have the passion for what you are doing, you have created a story, you have showcased it, and you have made an impact in someone’s life. You have supported charity. Whatever you do, you take the opportunity to do it. For me, entertainment in the UK is a thriving industry and anybody can find a medium to do what they want to. Entertainment is the same thing all over the world. I have a Valentine’s programme coming up. It’s fun, its entertainment. I want singles and married to come and have fun on that day. At the same time, there is this rush for people buying houses in Dubai. I want to bring some experts from Dubai to come and talk about properties over there. That’s part of what we’re going to do that day. On Valentine’s Day, it’s all about purchasing a property in Dubai. A lot of people don’t know how to go about it. So we’ll bring in the experts to come and talk about it.
