Nollywood actor Deyemi Okanlawon has revealed that he quit the film industry back in 2019, walking away entirely after concluding that the pay and quality of available work no longer matched what he expected of himself. Speaking on the CreativiTea podcast, the actor said the pay was nonsense, the work was nonsense, and that he simply couldn’t justify staying in an industry that left him unfulfilled after giving up a stable corporate career to pursue acting in the first place.
Rather than push through the frustration, Okanlawon returned to the corporate world, taking a marketing role at Silverbird Film Distribution before rising to head the company’s Nollywood distribution desk, and eventually serving as acting CEO when the substantive chief executive relocated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironically, once he stepped away, the industry came calling; top filmmakers, including Mo Abudu, Kemi Adetiba, Jade Osiberu, Funke Akindele, and Kunle Afolayan, all reportedly reached out with projects, though he initially turned them all down.
He eventually returned to acting in 2021, appearing in Funke Akindele’s blockbuster “Omo Ghetto: The Saga” which relaunched his career and opened the door to a now-thriving career.
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