Omoni Oboli: Early life
Omoni Oboli is an April baby. She was born on April 22, 1978, in Benin, the capital city of Edo State. Omoni is a descendant of Mosogar ancestry in Delta State. She was raised with her sister. Omoni Oboli attended Delta State primary school 3, Ovwian-Aladja and after her graduation, she moved to Delta State technical high school for her secondary education where she was the head girl and leader of the School’s debating society.
She gained admission into the University of Benin to study Foreign Languages with a Major in French. While she was busy enjoying her course of study, her talent was staringly at her accusingly until she made her debut as a secretary in the movie “Bitter Encounter” in 1996. Oboli appeared in four more movies before going on a hiatus, first, to finish her studies and raising her own family. She is also a trained digital filmmaker at the New York Film Academy
Omoni Oboli is 43 years old.
Omoni Oboli: Career
From all indications, Omoni Oboli is having a stellar career or so it seems. For someone who left the industry for over a decade to raise a family, returning to meet new changes, still fitting into the evolving entertainment world shows that at least, her acting career is not a fluke. She immediately found her feet but this time as an experienced actor, producer and actor which was the role many of her mates who came into the industry the same year as her has assumed. She produced and directed the film “Wives On Strike”, a storyline of women denying their husbands sex with a reason.
It starred actors like Uche Jumbo, Chioma Akpotha, Ufuoma McDermott, and Kehinde Bankole. The film has a powerful storyline as it was shot during the public outcry of the trending hashtag #ChildNotBride.
Omoni Oboli also starred and directed the comedy film “Moms at War”. The film tells the story of two mothers who compete against themselves in other to ensure success in the lives of their children, in particular, a scholarship competition. The film was one of the most discussed films of 2018.
She has also played lead roles in films like “The Figurine”, “Anchor Baby”, “Being Mrs Elliot”, and “Okafor’s Law” which landed her in legal trouble with Canadian-Nigerian filmmaker Jude Idada. The movie could not be screened at the premiere due to an injunction by the court as she was accused of copyright infringement by Jude Idada. The duo later settled their differences and the film was finally premiered on 31 March 2017.
In 2019, she starred in the film “Love is War” with renowned actor Richard Moje Damijo. The film is not on Netflix.
Marriage, Awards, Net Worth
Omoni Oboli got married in the year 2000 to filmmaker Nnamdi Oboli. They must have met on set during the early Nollywood days. They are blessed with three sons who are now grown-ups.
Omoni has received many awards in the entertainment industry. She is the first Nollywood actress to win Best Actress in two international festivals. Firstly, at the Harlem International Film Festival and the Los Angeles Movie Awards for her lead role in the movie “Anchor Baby”. Other awards include Best Actress in a leading role award at the 2011 Africa Movie Academy Awards, Big Screen Actress of the Year award, at the 2014 ELOY Awards, Personality of the Year at the 2015 Sun Nollywood awards.
When we researched what the net worth of Omoni Oboli is, we could not find a verifiable answer. While Austinemedia says that she was worth $400,000 in 2018, we find it hard to trust this figure because there was no explanation on how the figure was arrived at.
Also, this is 2021, and it is likely that the net worth of Omoni Oboli has changed. We know that she has other sources of income besides her film-making and acting career.
For instance, in 2019, Oboli launched a 3D Mink Lash Collection product line under her beauty company, Ageless by Omoni. Additionally, she is the brand ambassador of Pedini Nigeria; a company that deals in kitchen equipment and electronics.
Also, she has an endorsement deal with Nunu Milk and Royal Caribbean Nigeria, an international cruise brand.
She has a foundation through which she extends helping hand to indigents in the society.
Omoni Oboli Biography: Controversy
Omoni Oboli is one of the few celebrities who do not get themselves caught in the web of scandals often. But, her record is not completely clean as well. We found that four of the films that she directed and either produced or co-produced were subject to disputes bothering on the line of intellectual theft.
Jude Idada, an award-winning writer accused Omoni Oboli of stealing his script for use in the 2016 film Okafor’s Law. Pulse also mentions that Idada had also accused her of using his treatment of the 2014 film, Being Mrs Elliott, without contacting or paying him.
The case for Being Mrs Elliott did not reach the courts after Oboli allegedly said she didn’t remember receiving Idada’s treatment.
But the second accusation caused the filmmaker to cancel the initial premiere of Okafor’s Law on 24th March 2017. While the court granted her permission to go ahead and premiere it on 31st March 2017, the case was only resolved in 2019.
Omoni Oboli was declared victorious by the court on 2nd May 2019 according to a Pulse report.
Also in 2015, her film The First Lady was also alleged to have caused some trouble between her and an unnamed woman, who had supposedly written the screenplay for Oboli. This time, the case never made it to court but was settled amicably.
There were reports that Omoni Oboli had drawn heavily from Spike Lee’s 2015 comedy Chi-Raq to create her Wives on Strike film in 2016.
While this was not a legal case, Oboli had to clear her name. She issued a statement discrediting the reports. She argued that Wives on Strike had been a concept she conceived a long time ago before she even came across Chi-Raq.
Omoni Oboli Foundation
The actress and film director founded the Omoni Oboli Foundation in 2012. The foundation aims to take care of less privileged women and children. According to her Wikipedia Wikipedia page, the foundation has done the following:
On her 40th birthday, in 2018, the foundation launched an initiative called Sister Lizzy’s Kitchen. According to Bella Naija, the initiative aimed to feed 500 street kids in Lagos State every week.
However, it was not clear how long the programme lasted.
It also fed more than 200 less privileged children at Delta Steel Complex and handed them gifts.
The foundation organised an excursion to a milk factory for Ecole Divine Nursery Primary and Secondary School children.
Omoni Oboli Biography: Personal life
Omoni Oboli got married to Nnamdi Oboli in 2000 immediately after she left the New York Film Academy. The couple has three sons together but she suffered a miscarriage before she started bearing children. Following the death of late Ibidunni Ighodalo, Omoni Oboli revealed that she was planning to adopt a daughter with the help of the late beauty queen.
Omoni and Nnamdi Oboli’s first son is Tobe Oboli and he will be 19 years on 5 October 2020. Gozi and Chizi Oboli are respectively the second and third sons of Omoni Oboli.
Tobe Oboli will be 17 years on 26 July 2020 while Chizi Oboli celebrated his 15th birthday on 30 March 2020.
The actress lost her father in 2017 while her mother had died before that time. In an interview with The Cable, Omoni Oboli revealed that she had grown up in a broken home.
“My mother had two kids. She broke up with my father when we were little. I didn’t even know my parents together. I was a baby when they broke up,” she says.
Omoni Oboli’s book
In addition to being a widely acclaimed actress and filmmaker, Oboli also authored a book in 2018 titled, The Stars are Ageless. The book is subtitled, Finding My Light In Life. It is a memoir that details the life of the amazing actress.
To get to know more about Omoni Oboli, you will have to read her book.
