Independence was the highlight of Genoveva Umeh’s formative years in Nigeria. The British-Nigerian actress, a recipient of the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2024 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) for her performance in BB Sasore’s Breath of Life, had an upbringing that made her responsible for herself early in life. Her parents, natives of Anambra, were a busy couple based in Enugu. Growing up, she barely saw her mum who worked 12-hour shifts as a nurse. But her father, with whom she seems to have a stronger bond, tried to make time for social engagements, motivating Umeh to socialize more. “Whenever we went to parties my dad encouraged me to be part of the dance competitions and to win,” Umeh recalls. Unknown to him, he was grooming her for an acting career she would delve into later.
“I was always with a family member of some sort, which developed a sense of independence at a young age in Nigeria,” Umeh says.
At age six, Umeh was already traveling from her hometown in Enugu to Lagos to visit her uncle. Her parents would have a guardian on the same bus watch over her. One day, during a return trip to Enugu, the bus she boarded with other passengers developed some fault and there was a delay. It was getting late and her mother became worried. While they communicated over the phone, the young girl assured her mother that all was well, reasoning with her that she would preserve her battery power so as to enable her mother to constantly keep in touch throughout the rest of the journey.
“I also remember being back in the old town with my cousins and we would sit by the fireside and make up stories about the tortoise and wall gecko,” Umeh adds. Memories like these are the root of her talent.
Things grew tough in Nigeria for the family, and they relocated to the UK for hope of a better life. In London, Genoveva Umeh immediately became conscious of her blackness and identity as an African immigrant. Her early days in school were rough as she was often mocked for her Igbo accent. But it was only a matter of time before she acclimatized to her new realities.
“My early twenties was about navigating this identity politics. You are Nigerian outside, and so you just have to be malleable to the environment. You learn how to interact with other cultures. You learn patience. You learn to ignore macro-aggressions, and learn how to work twice as hard.”
Genoveva Umeh discovered improvisation while she was in high school in the UK. By that time, she was beginning to take interest in acting, and her parents, who felt it was a suitable extra-curricular activity for her, offered their support. At age 16, she started working, and she was able to support herself through Identity School of Acting in 2012 where she formally learnt acting, auditioned for roles and gained a lot of exposure. Identity School of Acting bred global stars like John Boyega and Letitia Wright (Shuri in Black Panther), and Damson Idris who was Umeh’s classmate. Umeh would leave, upon completion of her programme, to bag a degree in law at the University of Surrey.
“At Identity School of Acting, I saw my peers discuss their dreams and aspirations, and I learnt how to tell the truth in performance. The teachers were iconic, and I too wanted to be so. It was an amazing space to be.”
Back home, Nollywood was taking a new shape as the industry became more democratized. YouTube had exploded, providing a level playing field for independent filmmakers. Content creators and skit makers were also using social media as the ladder to get into mainstream film. Netflix came into the Nigerian market in 2016 and acquired Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart in 2018, making it the first Netflix Original film produced in the country (Amazon Prime Video would arrive much later, with the launch of Gangs of Lagos in 2023 as its first African Original, hoping to outflank Netflix). The stage seemed set for Umeh as she sought to shamelessly pursue her acting career. On August 1, 2018, she returned to Nigeria, leaving behind her family in the UK. While she hoped to get a part-time job to support herself, she attended a number of auditions and soon bagged her first movie role. But before this critical moment, she had cashed in on the opportunity to network with Nigerian filmmakers like Jade Osiberu, Omoni Oboli and Funke Akindele who had brought their movie premieres to the UK—which would be instrumental to her soft landing as an actress in Nigeria.
“I think I was 15 or 16, and there were these Nigerian filmmakers in the UK doing a film. I remember showing up for the audition somewhere in Greenwich with a friend. I was supposed to play an extra, and all I had to do was serve a drink for five pounds. But I think, after that, I had my main role in 2016 in a movie that never got released.”
In 2019, Umeh appeared briefly in a scene with Richard Mofe Damijo in Omoni Oboli’s Love Is War, a political drama film that also stars veterans like Jide Kosoko, Akin Lewis and Shaffy Bello. Her first lead role came in the 2020 film A Tune Away where she embodies Anita Da Silva, a woman who offers to help with caring for kids at a therapeutic boarding school for children living with Atrial septal defect (ASD).
Still realizing the need to hone her craft and connect with likeminds, Umeh enrolled at EbonyLife Creative Academy (ELCA) in 2021. There, she met wonderful tutors and participated in a lot of short film projects. One of her tutors and a renowned filmmaker, Kenneth Gyang, took interest in her acting and recommended her for the role of Timeyin, the drug addict daughter of the dysfunctional Ademola family, which she auditioned for and earned in Mo Abudu’s Blood Sisters. The crime thriller series, directed by Biyi Bandele and Kenneth Gyang, debuted on Netflix in 2022.
“I had wanted a training or workshop environment to revive my love for acting, so the acting for screen course was a true reflection for me because it just reminded me of everything I had learnt about acting,” she reminisces about her days at ELCA. “There was this practical short film that one of the directors had written, and one of the characters was a recovering drug addict who was having to confess to her counselor that she had relapsed. I played that character. Kenneth Gyang was in the room to observe and help the director, and I guess he saw my work.”
Far From Home, a Netflix Nigerian Young Adult series, follows the story of Ishaya Bello (played by Mike Afolarin), a working class teenager who, in pursuit of a career in art, gets into trouble with a gang after stealing their money with which he applies for a scholarship and schemes his way into the prestigious Wilmer Academy. Umeh stars in the series as Zina, the free-spirited and fashionable teenage student who immediately becomes friends with Ishaya on his first day in class after helping him with his tie and is later seen partying and mingling with her Wilmer peers. The series brings together an ensemble of veterans and fast-rising actors like Emeka Nwagbaraocha, Tomi Ojo, Olumide Oworu and Elma Mbadiwe.
“I’m so happy that I got to play Zina on the Netflix show,” Uneh relives the experience on set. “We were about 11 young people. We recognized the privilege, and really just did want to do our best. We spent a lot of time together. Imagine young people, the Nigerian ways to banter, passionate arguments, and all that.”
With her appearances on major streaming platforms like Netflix and Prime Video, Umeh warmed her way into the hearts of Nollywood cinephiles and positioned herself among the current generation of actors bent on taking the industry to the next level. Her performances in the blockbusters, Breath of Life (AMVCA’s winner for Best Movie) and A Tribe Called Judah (highest-grossing Nollywood movie of all time), are further proof of her work ethic and her being the go-to person for the character of a quintessential exuberant youngster.
Umeh also stars as Ana, Elijah’s fiancée-turned-wife, alongside Chimezie Imo, in Breath of Life. The story presents the intersecting lives of Reverend Timi who loses his belief in God after failing to recover from the psychological trauma of watching his wife and daughter burnt to death by a grudgeful, bloodthirsty enemy; and a young, industrious preacher Elijah who becomes a housekeeper and sojourns with Timi.
“I worked with Chimezie Imo in 2016. We already had that work relationship, so it was easy to be comfortable with him in that space. We didn’t really know the scale of the production. We just knew that we were telling a story that we wanted to tell. It was filmed in Ibadan, and we had the best hands, the best crew, and we were telling this story with such detail.”
Genoveva Umeh isn’t only fun when in character. During our conversation, she often slips into short laughs, her rapid-fire British accent roaming over bits and chunks of her life outside film. She enjoys hosting game nights with her female friends, going to karaoke and watching films— romcoms, situational comedies, drama thrillers. A perusal of her Instagram page shows she’s open to traveling and visiting places, which anyone would expect of a showbiz personality. But then, it’s her commitment to learning practical techniques of the art of self-defense that comes off as a bit unexpected. “I started doing that since I was 16 but I stopped at some point because of exams and other commitments. I picked it back about a year ago” she says.
Acting, for Umeh, must come with relatable characters with shared human experience, which might as well involve some research. This simple belief enables her to decide on filmic roles that are worthy of acceptance and guides her passion for telling African stories to the world. While she takes pride in her dual identities and her ability to switch between Nigerian and British accents depending on the circumstance, she is grateful that her Nigerianness earned her a space in the domestic film industry.
Umeh’s most challenging experience since her return to Nigeria is adjusting to the socioeconomic realities here. She shares the sentiment that actors need to earn better so as to have an improved lifestyle. But she also feels that while these actors are faced with the pressures of meeting their celebrity lifestyle, they must remain true to themselves and live within their means. Being too self aware of one’s inadequacies, she notes, is counter-productive.
“I want to collaborate with other African storytellers,” she says, matter-of-factly, pledging her commitment to using film in presenting history that is timeless.
