Alice Iyabo Ojo is a Nigerian film actress cum producer, who joined the industry a couple of years ago, but tremendously making impact in the industry. She has featured in more than 150 films, as well as producing over 14 of her own. She was born on 21th December 1977 in Lagos but her father was from Abeokuta, Ogun State.
She was the youngest of three children, having two older brothers. She went to school in Lagos at National College, Gbagbada, before proceeding to study Estate Management at the Lagos State Polytechnic.
Having been involved in a drama group at secondary school, she commenced her acting career in 1998. Describing her start, she has said: “So after I had come of age, I went to Bimbo Akintola, after watching one of her movies, and told her that I wanted to be an actress and she did help me.
Through her guidance, I registered with the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) and afterwards she took me around, introducing me to a lot of the people she knew in the industry.
Ojo has scripted and featured in several Nigerian films. Her first role was in 1998’s Satanic, an English-language film. In 2002, she made her Yoruba-language debut with Baba Darijinwon.
In January 2015, her film Silence, which features Joseph Benjamin Alex Usifo, Fathia Balogun, and Doris Simeon, premiered at the Silverbird Cinemas, Ikeja, in Lagos.
In 2004, Ojo started producing her own films, her first production being Bolutife, after which she made Bofeboko, Ololufe, Esan and Okunkun Biribiri.
Marrying a Lagos-based movie marketer in 1999, when she was 21, she took a break from pursuing her career. She gave birth to a son and then a daughter (born in 1999 and 2001 respectively) but is now divorced from their father. She has attributed the breakup of her first marriage to getting married too young. She has spoken of her intention to stop using her former husband’s surname, Ojo.
Iyabo Ojo launched her NGO, Pinkies Foundation, which caters to the children with special needs and the less privileged, in May 2011. She celebrated the fifth anniversary of the foundation on 1 May 2016 at the R&A City Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
