by Sherif Awad
-I was born in Imo State Nigeria to a Christian lovely couple. My parents are both singers in choir since we are of Catholic Church background. I was named after Saint Joan of arc the patroness saint of France and the Military. I would say that I’m born into Arts. Because my grandmother loves art and three of her children are musical inclined inclusive of my dad and his two sisters older and younger. Also at my maternal, my mum’s two eldest brothers are both singers and music composers. The oldest brother was in the radio and television drama of Things Fall Apart a drama adaptation of a novel by Chinua Achebe. Arts thus came naturally to me and I would say that I am blessed and have Arts and entertainment blood in my veins. I would say that I met at an entertainment from when I was a pupil you know between the age of six to nine I would write during the break time where all the children when all the children are playing I will take up my pencil I’ll take out by pencil and paper, then I’ll create some characters from an English book we’ve read in class, I’ll call my mates to come dramatize it. So it was basically all about writing and directing I never saw myself acting even when I got to high school. And of course as child sing in children’s choir for children masses. While in high school late veteran actor Justice as Siri would request that I joined you know I come in as a teen actor do my family didn’t allow me but I still got into the entertainment industry as it inactive because by the time I finished my high school and I went for my admission I left Lagos down to Imo state for my university degree unfortunately the admission didn’t work out and so, I moved to do my diploma in Computer science and at the same go for movie auditions.
-I appeared in my first film, HITLER directed by veteran director Simi Opeoluwa in 2006. I also featured musical videos as video vixen, dancer. I saw a lot of worm Hollywood movies and Nigerian movies while growing up so that gave me the opportunity to see and admire the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Liz Benson, Hilda dokubo. I know I saw all the actors on stage foreign stage performing especially stage performances in Italy but I can’t really recall their names at the moment.
-Studying and learning to be an artist wasn’t an easy one because at the very moment I made my intention to go into the entertainment industry known to my family, my father and other family members blatantly kicked against the idea and encouraged my to study and acquire my LLB law first. But when my admission didn’t work out, they got me a job in order to stop me from going into acting or entertainment in general but along the line I found my way into the entertainment industry. I started to act and model in videos as video vixen and dancer until I eventually gain admission into the university where I got my degree in LLB law.
-It’s really not satisfying for now because I dream of being a biggest star so stardom is very important to me I did like this dream to be actualized soonest. There is rarely any challenge in terms of gender. There are opportunities for everyone, but one needs to make his or her choose. But most of the times, fund is a big challenge for filmmakers. There has been a lot of changes which has either affected us positively, sometimes negatively. In a positive way, there have been changes in terms of contents, pictures, quality andthe packaging but in terms economy/ finances the entertainment industry is still lacking here in my country. I studied the scripts first then make, researchers on them, Skill acquisition and personalised training does help too for me to deliver the roles offered to me. I sometimes turn down scripts
