Award-winning Nollywood actress and producer, Funke Akindele, has credited her success to divine grace, emphasizing that no one but God made her a star.
Speaking at the 2025 Media Sales Conference organized by the Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) in Lagos, Akindele revealed that her rise to fame was a result of relentless hard work, perseverance, and divine favor.
“Nobody made me a star, only God,” she boldly stated. “I wrote my script, and that was it. The first Jenifa came out in 2009, and that changed everything for me.”
She, however, acknowledged the support of music star D’banj, who encouraged her to capitalize on the Jenifa brand when she considered moving on from it.
“During the Jenifa buzz, a club owner invited me to his club, and I met D’banj there. He asked about my plans for the Jenifa brand, and I told him I had moved on. But he insisted that I should build on it, saying, ‘That’s a brand. Go and write another script.’ He even gave me some money to support the process,” she revealed.
Akindele first gained recognition in I Need to Know, a TV series that aired from 1998 to 2002. However, her breakthrough came in 2008 with the hit movie Jenifa, which later became a franchise.
Today, she holds the record as Nigeria’s highest-grossing producer in cinema history, cementing her legacy as one of Nollywood’s most successful filmmakers.
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