•Veteran Actor, KANAYO O. KANAYO
Veteran actor, Anayo Modestus Onyekwere, popularly known as Kanayo O. Kanayo is one of the most celebrated movie icons in the entertainment industry. He is also a successful politician, businessman and lawyer.
He started his acting career 40 years ago and remains one of the pioneers of the movie industry in Nigeria. Many will always applaud him for his role in Living In Bondage, Family Battle, which won him Best Actor Award of a leading role in African Movie Academy Award. He is widely recognised for his genre of movies, which mostly sees him playing occultic group member who is raring to make money through rituals.
He joined Nollywood in 1982 out of pure desire to bring smile on people’s faces. In 2017, in collaboration with Globacom Communication Company, he became involved in the seasonal TV programme, Professor Johnbull, where he plays The Professor.
Despite being in the industry for 4 decades, he has remained very relevant in the industry, featuring in movies back to back.
In 2013, he received a political appointment from a former President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who nominated him as a National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Studies Board member.
He runs Mentoring Academy, KOKMA, with which he seeks to inspire youths to aspire for greater heights and things.
In 2017, he went back to school to obtain a Law degree from University of Abuja, which has always been one of his dreams in life.
He has made huge success out of his career and personal life. He is happily married to Nneka Onyekwere and the family is blessed with 4 children.
Kanayo O. Kanayo has immensely contributed to the growth of Nollywood in Nigeria and entertainment industry abroad. It is, therefore, not a surprise that he has been honoured with numerous awards both home and abroad for his recognised contribution to the industry.
Kanayo O. Kanayo is rated one of the most influential and successful actors in Nigeria and he has also paid his dues in the industry.
He is one of the few actors who rose from grass to grace and always inspires many upcoming stars in the industry. In his youthful days, he had done menial jobs to support his family. He hawked Agidi on the streets of Enugu. He has more than enough to celebrate this year, as he clocks 60 years and also 40 years in the movie industry. He was a guest at Chude, where he revealed how he felt about the Sacrifice memes on the internet. What has sustained his 40 years in the industry and how becoming a Lawyer is one of his greatest achievements in life.
For multi-talented actor, he started acting at NTA Enugu, immediately after secondary school days. He was involved in television plays, and dramas and from there, he became known nation-wide. During that era, there was no private television stations. There was no competition among television stations in the country as they all belonged to government. From Enugu, he came to Lagos (NTA) and was posted to the commercial department. During those days, he was part of New Village Headmaster, then Ripples and, Checkmate.
Whe the call came for cast of Living In Bondage he was part of it too, which eventually became his debut movie, and since then he has been very steady, passionate and committed to the industry.
When asked if the Sacrifice memes on social media make him comfortable and his character in movies as a ritualist? He had this to say. ‘No’. They don’t make me uncomfortable. What exactly I found out along the line is that besides these ritualist roles, I have equally interpretes my roles in movies such as Lion Heart, Professor Johnbull, Up North and many others so well. All these had nothing to do with going to do juju.
An actor has to be flexible.
How well you are able to perform other roles should be his/her concern.
And I think it’s only in Nigeria, not even in Africa, that this type of casting is an issue. If you look at Sylvester Stallone, he would always be a bad guy. Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger. That is what it is, they don’t see it as type cast.
They look at flexibility of the actor in the role he is playing and not about you playing a hard guy here and there. That is how Nigerians qualify you anyway and that is not goood for those of us in the profession”.
So for Oscars and so on, they look at you from the perspective of the role you played and not whether it’s the same thing as the other roles you have played.
It is most unfortunate that even when one plays certain roles, some youths cannot distinguish between the character played and the person true life and living. Just because one played a criminal role on TV drama some persons would see the actor as a criminal. Acting a ritualist does not mean one is a ritualist in real life. Anyway, I see those who think that way as uneducated, uninformed and having complex problems.
When asked how he feels about going back to school and getting a Law degree a few years ago, he had this to say?
I have always wanted to be a Lawyer. In 1994/1995, when I was given admission to study Philosophy in UNILAG, it was Law I wanted, so I was very angry that UNILAG gave me Philosophy. My wife, however, encouraged me to go ahead and do it, even though, it was Law I wanted, because for me, what I do on TV is what lawyers do in court, though on different ground. A Lawyer goes to court and if he does not argue his case well, he loses it.
If a doctor does not do his job well, his patient dies, so we all have different stages on which to perform our trades. So for me, being a Lawyer gives you the advantage to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves. Those who are oppressed, so being a Lawyer is my long-life dream, so in 2018, I was called to the Bar.
How do you feel, life at 60 years?
I just attended a meeting 30 minutes ago before coming here and I told the attendees that going old in this country is not something to pray for because since we were born, we have been struggling with no electricity and many of other necessities that make life good for the people. The worst scenario now is that you finish from school with a 1st Class, then go and work for someone who failed at school. 60 is no more an old age, inshort I feel more vibrant compared to when I clocked 40 years. When I look at what is happening now, then I look at my son that is 20 now, and wondering what will happen to them in the next 20 to 30 years. It is quite sad.
I was among those who criticised Instagram initially, because I believed it was just for girls who wanted to expose their bodies. So I didn’t open any account until I started featuring in Professor Johnbull in 2018 when my colleagues already had millions of followers.
Moreover I was studying Law then, so I stayed off to concentrate on my studies and career, so it was a long time before I joined. And I would say my team really tried on the achievement so far.
For those who don’t know how he came about the name Kanayo O. Kanayo. According to him Kanayo O. Kanayo is my professional name. It happened in the 80’s when we were at NTA Enugu, I answered Onyekwere, that is the name Mbaise people and generally, people from Imo State answer to, but at NTA Enugu then, each time, they wanted to write my name, they would write “Onyekwelu”, which is the way Anambra people write and pronounce it. And I would argue with them that, that wasn’t my surname. So, each time they wanted to pay me artiste fee in those days, there would be quarreling and arguing. Then somebody said, please do something about this Kanayo wahala, and apart from Onyekwelu, they also used to misspell my name Anayo as Kanayo. At a point, somebody remarked that why was it that alll the time, it was Kanayo Kanayo matter that we were dealing with here. That was how everybody started calling me Kanayo Kanayo, the only thing I did was to add my surname Onyekwere in the middle to create KOK and that was how the name stuck.
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