Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to win the Prize in literature.
The University of Lagos (UNILAG) is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria, which was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in Africa in major education publications. The university presently has three campuses in the mainland of Lagos. Whereas two of its campuses are located at Yaba, it's college of medicine is located at Idi-Araba, Surulere. Its main campus is largely surrounded by the Lagos lagoon and has 802 acres of land. As at 2024, the University of Lagos admits around 8,500 undergraduate students annually and enrolls over 57,000 students.
Chief Hubert Adedeji Ogunde D.Lit. was a Nigerian actor, playwright, theatre manager, and musician who founded the first contemporary professional theatrical company in Nigeria, the African Music Research Party, in 1945.
Sefi Atta is a Nigerian-American novelist, short-story writer, playwright and screenwriter. Her books have been translated into many languages, her radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC, and her stage plays have been performed internationally. Awards she has received include the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
Durodola Durosomo Duroorike Timothy Adisa Ladipo, more commonly known as Duro Ladipo, was one of the best known and critically acclaimed Yoruba dramatists who emerged from postcolonial Africa. Writing solely in the Yoruba language, he captivated the symbolic spirit of Yoruba mythologies in his plays, which were later adapted to other media such as photography, television and cinema. His most famous play, Ọba kò so, a dramatization of the traditional Yoruba story of how Ṣango became the Orisha of Thunder, received international acclaim at the first Commonwealth Arts Festival in 1965 and on a Europe an tour, where a Berlin critic, Ulli Beier, compared Ladipọ to Karajan. Ladipo usually acted in his own plays.
Chief Bode Thomas was a Nigerian lawyer, politician, statesman and traditional aristocrat. Thomas served as both a colonial minister of the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria and a nobleman and privy counsellor of the historic Oyo Kingdom of Yorubaland at a time when his country was still under British colonial rule before her independence in the 1960s. He was Nigeria's first Minister of Transportation.
Oyo is a city in Oyo State, Nigeria. It was founded as the capital of the remnant of the historic Oyo empire in the 1830s, and is known to its people as 'New Oyo' to distinguish it from the former capital to the north, 'Old Oyo' (Ọ̀yọ́-Ilé), which had been deserted as a result of the Yoruba Revolutionary Wars. Its inhabitants are mostly of the Yoruba people, and its ruler is the Alaafin of Oyo.
The Olota of Ota is the traditional ruler and sovereign of Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria.
Wole Oguntokun was a Nigerian playwright, dramaturge, director and was the artistic director of Theatre Planet Studios and Renegade Theatre as well as a member of the board of Theaturtle, a Canadian theatre company. He was also a theatre administrator and newspaper columnist.
Tunde Kelani, popularly known as TK, is a Nigerian filmmaker. In a career spanning more than four decades, TK specialises in producing movies that promote Nigeria's rich cultural heritage and have a root in documentation, archiving, education, entertainment and promotion of the culture.
Sonni Gwanle Tyoden is a Nigerian professor of political science, educational administrator, and politician who served as the deputy governor of Plateau State from 2015 to 2023. He is a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos.
Jimi Solanke was a Nigerian film actor, dramatist, folk singer, poet and playwright.
Golden Age or Golden era are terms used in Nigerian film history to designate the motion picture industry of Nigeria from the late 1950s to the late 1980s. It captures the mode of visual and sound production, as well as the method of distribution employed during this period. This period began with the formal recognition of the Nigerian Film Unit as a sector in 1954, with the first film entirely copyrighted to this unit being Fincho (1957) by Sam Zebba.
Dike Chukwumerije is a Nigerian spoken word and performance poetry artist and author. He has eight published books, including the novel Urichindere, which won the 2013 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Prose Fiction and a poetry theatre production made in Nigeria. In October 2018, he traveled to nine Nigerian cities: Abuja, Lagos, Enugu, Benin, Ile-Ife, Maiduguri, Yola, Bonny, and Jos.
Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo is a Nigerian author and educator, whose published work includes novels, poetry, short stories, books for children, essays and journalism. She is the winner of several awards in Nigeria, including the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
Omowunmi Dada is a Nigerian actress, best known for her role as Folake in the M-Net television series Jemeji. She was also cast in the 2017 Yoruba language film Somewhere in the Dark, which won the award for Best Indigenous Film at the 2017 AMVCA Awards, and for which she received a nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Yoruba) at the Best of Nollywood Awards in 2017. In 2018, Dada played the voice of the titular character in Nigeria's first animation full-length feature film, Sade.
Abiodun Duro-Ladipo is a Nigerian actress and singer of noble Yoruba birth. In 1963, she joined the theatre company of Duro Ladipo, whom she married the following year. Acting in her husband's epic plays, she was particularly successful in the role of Oya in Oba Koso and in the title role of Moremi. In the 1960s and early 1970s, she appeared across Europe at several international festivals. Since her husband's death in 1978, Abiodun has appeared in Nigerian television series and in films promoting African culture, once again playing Moremi in the 2009 film of the same name.
Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin is a Nigerian television and film producer, director and screenwriter. He is the founder/CEO of Dudu Productions, the television production company which produced the first commercial music video in Nigeria. He has since produced a number of Nigerian music acts, including Sir Shina Peters, Sonny Okosun, Majek Fashek, Onyeka Onwenu and K1 De Ultimate. He produced and directed box office hits like Iyawo Alhaji and Ami Orun, including Ireke Onibudo, which predates Nigeria's Nollywood.
Sunday "Sunnie" Enessi Ododo, FNAL is a Nigerian professor of performance aesthetics, theatre practice and theatre technology. He is a writer and has served as the General Manager/CEO of the National Arts Theatre from 2020 to 2024. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and has served as one of its executive members.
