Osuofia - Nkem Owoh

Nkem Owoh Biography / Profile

Nkem Nwabuoku Owoh (popularly known as Osuofia) was born on February 7th, 1958 in Amagu Village, Udi Town, Enugu State, Nigeria. He is a Nigerian veteran actor, comedian and music artist.

Nkem Owoh Age

Nkem Owoh is 66 years old.

Nkem Owoh Early Life

Owoh schooled at Nsukka for Primary and Secondary Education. He had began his tertiary Education at the University of Ilorin and completed it at Institute of Management Technolgy(IMT), Enugu where he bagged a degree in Electrical Engineering.

Owoh began his acting career way back in his Primary and Secondary school days. Owoh knew right from time that he had a talent in acting. Infact Nkem Owoh is one unique Nollywood actor that has a way of interpreting his roles. He is a born natural when it comes to acting. He worked with WACO Engineering after his youth service but was unfortunately laid off after a year. This gave him room for radio and television productions.

Nkem Owoh Career

Owoh had his first major break in acting when he landed a role in the screen adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. The 1987 series had fifty episodes each spanning about 50 minutes and was aired on the Nigerian Television Authority. As Nollywood picked pace, he landed a supporting role in both Ukwa 1 and 2 in 1995 alongside other big names such as Sam Loco and Patience Ozokwor (Mama G).

He is credited in over 200 films and TV productions. Most Nigerian producers prefer to have sequels to almost every other film thus benefitting actors like Owoh who have to feature in movies that they have played as lead acts or major supporting casts. His biggest act so far is Osuofia in London which received worldwide acclaim in 2003.

He is also known for performing the song “I Go Chop Your Dollar” about advance fee fraud. The song was featured in the film The Master in which Owoh plays a scammer. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission banned the song. He was also banned for fronting unattainable demands. He was accused severally by producers of charging exorbitant appearance fees. The Association of Movie Makers and Producers banned him for making unreasonable demands in 2004. He was among a list of several Nigerian artists who were barred from acting in the country due to their high fees and difficult contract demands.

Nkem Owoh Personal Life

Nkem Owoh’s wife is Ngozi Nkem Owoh. They married in 1998. The couple is blessed with two daughters. There is a common misconception that he and Chinwe Owoh are married. According to him, they are in-laws and not husband and wife.

In 2007 Owoh was arrested in Amsterdam, Netherlands (Bijlmermeer neighborhood in the Amsterdam Zuidoost borough) as the result of a 7-month investigation by the Dutch police dubbed “Operation Apollo”. He was arrested while performing a musical show when the police raided the event and arrested 111 people on suspicion of lottery fraud and immigration violations. He was later released.

Owoh disappeared from the public limelight for a while in December 2008. Then rumours picked up that he had passed on after a drug overdose just a month after his movie award win. Another version had it that the actor had been convicted somewhere in the Arabian desert for drug trafficking while still others said that he was kidnapped and beheaded in Russia. Just like other stars that have been killed ‘on the internet,’ Owoh had to make a public appearance before the press to dispel the rumours. In November 2009, he was kidnapped in eastern Nigeria. His kidnappers demanded a 15 million naira ransom. He was released after his family members allegedly paid a ransom fee of 1.4 million naira.

Nkem Owoh Awards

In 2008, Owoh won the best actor in a lead role at the African Movie Academy Awards. Other awards won by him include; City People Movie Special Recognition Award (2014), City People Movie Lifetime Achievement Award (2017) and Africa Movie Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement (2017).