Okechukwu Oku (popularly known as The Oracle), was born in Enugu, Nigeria to popular 1970s musician Goddy Oku and Winifred Oku of Ukpo in Dunukofia local government area of Anambra State. He is a Nigerian movie producer, director and cinematographer.
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Oku attended WTC Primary School, Enugu and went on to St. Charles Special Science School, Onitsha, Anambra State. Halfway through his University education, Oku left school to pursue his passion in the arts where he immersed himself in music, recording a few gospel tracks of his own and producing music for a number of musicians in Southeast Nigeria.
Oku's decision to drop out of school at age 16 didn’t go down well with his father. The friction in their relationship led to a 17 year old Okey living on his own. To survive, he rented a shop in New Haven, Enugu selling cassettes and CDs while producing gospel songs. He produced his first hit at the age of 18 and with the proceeds from that hit, he rented an apartment close to his home and built two studios. These studios became Pure Sound, the first digital studio back then in the early 2000s. There he produced songs for artists like JMartins, Wizboy, Resonance and so many other Enugu based acts at the time. In a bid to rebrand the business and grow, Pure Sound moved away from presidential road to a huge plaza, the Zandas plaza, in New haven axis of Enugu.
According to Oku, this was a huge business mistake as Pure Sound could not recoup what it spent on the move. Business dwindled and after a while, Pure Sound had to move again though never fully recovering. There is a silver lining in every cloud suits perfectly in the case of what happened next in his artistic career as the woes he faced with Pure Sound gave rise to Oracle Films.
As a music producer, he had produced and directed lots of music videos for acts like Resonance’s hit gospel song Chinwike, Chinyere udoma, Mike Ejeagha and so on. According to Okey Oku, the dramas (storylines) in the videos seemed more realistic to him than Nollywood movies at the time. After hearing people tell him how good he was directing these videos, he decided to screen for the actors guild which he got and didn’t use for the next five years. This he did because he hadn’t resolved to go fully into film.
Following the collapse of Pure Sound, Okey oku went into cinematography. He soon became the only cinematographer in the south east using a 5D camera for his shoots. He began to make money from cinematography and continued to develop his abilities in the film through practice and studying online. When he became more popular, he then branded his work as Oracle Cinematography. He has won many awards as a cinematography which include two for the movie Brother’s Keeper and an Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award for best cinematography for the movie Refugees.
According to him, haven worked with many producers and directors gained valuable lessons about film making. However his dissatisfaction with the unpreparedness of many producers led him to film production fully, as he wanted to correct this. His first film as a producer and director was the critically acclaimed and very successful movie Bambicious which was shot in Enugu. The movie which features Belinda Effah and Daniel K Daniel, brought Okey Oku to limelight internationally after it won nine awards at the Afrifimo awards. With this, he started his film company and named it Oracle Film.
The success of Bambicious was followed by his second called The Boss is Mine featuring Imeh Bishop, Michael Godson, Daniella Okeke and many others. According to him, four other movies are in the works, to be released very soon. They include Black Rose and Weather For Two.
Oku is 2nd in a family of 11 as his father married three wives. He is brother to popular singer and producer Udoka Selebobo Oku. He is married to Queendalyn Oku and has three kids.
Oku lives and works from his studio in Enugu. He shoots most of his movies in the South east with a few done outside Nigeria. He strongly believes the South east has a lot to offer in terms of film and entertainment in general
In 2015, Oku won the Best Film Director award at the Afrifimo Awards and Film /Music Festival.
His net worth is not available.
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