Why Deyemi Okanlawon quit Nollywood

Nollywood actor Deyemi Okanlawon has opened up about a period most of his fans never knew about, a time when he walked away from acting entirely, convinced the industry wasn’t worth his time.

Speaking on the CreativiTea podcast, Okanlawon revealed that he quit acting in 2019, citing poor pay and a general sense that the work available to him fell below the standard he had set for himself when he left a stable corporate career to pursue the craft.

“The pay was nonsense, the work was nonsense. I just felt like I didn’t leave 9-5 work to come and do mediocre work,” he said.

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“It was difficult to wake up in the morning and go to work, and what is the point of being passionate about something and then not being fulfilled by it?”

Rather than stay and manage his frustration, he dusted off his CV and returned to the corporate world, taking up a role at Silverbird Film Distribution as head of marketing. He later moved up to head the company’s Nollywood distribution desk and eventually served as acting CEO after the substantive CEO relocated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then, almost as if the industry had been waiting for him to leave before deciding he was valuable, the calls started coming in.

According to him, Mo Abudu called, Kemi Adetiba called, Jade Osiberu called, Funke Akindele called, and Kunle Afolayan called. Every filmmaker he had wanted to work with before quitting suddenly had a project with his name on it.

“Everybody kept saying, ‘Come back, come back,'” he recalled. “I kept saying, ‘No, I’m done.'”

He held out until 2021, when he finally returned to set, and the industry received him differently this time.

His role in Funke Akindele’s Omo Ghetto: The Saga is widely credited as the project that fully re-established him, opening the door to the consistent, high-profile work that has defined his career since.

Okanlawon’s story traces back further than 2019. He first auditioned in 2010, picked up two roles, and found himself fielding offers quickly enough that by his third year he was choosing between a thriving sales and marketing career and the uncertainty of full-time acting.

He gave himself one year to try. One year became two. Then it became a career, with one notable detour in between.