Making it in Nollywood: the dream of so many young and aspiring actors. For this reason, the question, “how to become a Nollywood actor or actress’ bothers in the mind of aspiring actors.
The Daily Page will show you the road to becoming an actor or actress in the Nollywood movie industry. Over the years, Nollywood which is Nigeria’s movie industry is known to be the biggest movie industry in Africa and the second-largest film industry in the world.
Since the existence of Nollywood, the movie industry has produced a lot of successful actors such as Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Genevieve Nnaji, Rita Dominic, Funke Akindele, Ramsey Nouah, Olu Jacobs, Joke Silva, Mercy Johnson, and others.
The above-mentioned names have enjoyed many benefits such as a huge fan base, popularity, paid acting gigs, and multi-millionaire endorsement deals.
Well, you can as well build a successful career in the Nollywood movie industry and become a celebrity with the following steps listed below:
How to become a Nollywood actor or actress
1. Have a passion for acting
Before you begin a journey to the Nollywood industry, you must have a great passion for acting and a dream of making it big, for the fact that it is a long road, if you are a beginner.
In the movie industry, you might face failed auditions and others but your passion will keep you going with the combination of patience, persistence, and hard work.
2. Acquire an acting degree
To become more successful in the movie, you need to attend school theatre as soon as possible so that you acquire enough skills and experience to become an actor.
However, there are plenty of Nigerian actors who did not go to university or did go to university but not for theatre.
Well, the beauty of acquiring theatre education is that it teaches you empathy, strong communication among your colleagues in the field, creative thinking as well as how to build the spirit of teamwork.
For this reason, attending theatre school is necessary as you have to keep learning if you want to become successful in Nollywood.
3. Create an acting portfolio
In case you don’t know, an acting portfolio is what contains all relevant acting work and projects you have done so far.
With the help of an acting portfolio, you are qualified to go for auditions as these would help filmmakers, movie producers to consider you for a role to play in the Nollywood movies.
For now, social media such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube are the best place to upload your acting portfolios.
4. Go for auditions
As an aspiring Nollywood movie star, make auditions your job. Make sure you register for as many auditions as you can and don’t get discouraged if you fail it.
The beauty of auditions is that it is where you can find positive role models, mentors, film directors which would increase the size of your professional network.
Also, attending auditions will enable you to showcase your acting skills before movie directors and producers. And if you perform well, you can get selected to act a role in the Nollywood movie and so much more.
5. Join a union or talent agency
The benefit of joining a union or talent agency is that it makes you aware of a lot of opportunities for bigger and better roles in the Nollywood industry. Note that union or talent agencies tend to know about auditions before anyone else does. For this reason, you have an added advantage compared to an aspiring actor who does not belong to any group.
6. Showcase your talent on social media
Social media has helped some Nigerian celebrities such as Frank Dongo, Broda Shaggi, Cute Abiola, Emmanuella, Funny Black, Woli Arole, Woli Agba, and others, rise to the limelight.
In order to build your personal brand, make sure you use your legal name as the name of your social media page and use a catchy name for your social media username. Note your username must be unique.
Remember, content is king, so creators like you must post funny contents that showcase your acting skills to the extent that filmmaker and movie producers will notice you.
7. Reach out to movie directors and filmmakers
This is a Do It Yourself thing, You can browse for as many movie producers and directors on search engines like Google. Once you have gotten their name, you can get their contact details via their Instagram page or other social media platforms.
