Deyemi: I Walked Away From Acting Before My Breakthrough
Nollywood star Deyemi Okanlawon has offered a candid account of the moment he walked away from acting in 2019, saying poor remuneration and a loss of fulfilment pushed him back to a conventional office job before he found his way to the top of the industry.
The 45-year-old actor made the disclosure on a recent episode of the CreativiTea podcast, which began trending on Wednesday. Reflecting on the decision, he said, “So, I quit acting in 2019. I quit because the pay was nonsense, the work was nonsense. And I just felt like I didn’t leave 9-to-5 work to come and do mediocre work.”
He described the difficulty of staying motivated when the passion no longer matched the reward. “It was difficult to wake up in the morning and go to work, and what is the point of being passionate about something and then not being fulfilled by it? So I quit and then went back to 9-to-5 work,” he said.
The break was neither permanent nor idle. Okanlawon stepped away from acting in 2019 and took up a corporate role as head of marketing for Silverbird Film Distribution, before returning to the screen about a year later after finding a better balance for his career. That decision to leave and return has since become one of the more instructive career arcs in contemporary Nollywood, given how sharply his fortunes turned afterward.
His trajectory is notable because of where he started. A trained chemical engineer who began in church dramas before moving into film, Okanlawon has gone on to feature in blockbusters such as Omo Ghetto: The Saga, Prophetess, Blood Sisters and Swallow, becoming a fixture on streaming platforms across the continent.
The remarks land within a longer conversation the actor has sustained about fair compensation in Nigeria’s film industry. In a 2025 interview with Nollywood on Radio, he laid out the pay disparities that frustrate many performers, noting that while some films were shot for five or ten million naira with actors paid 50,000 to 100,000 naira, others were produced for 15 to 100 million naira and still offered the same fees. He has also spoken about the toll of the craft, comparing acting without adequate welfare to working in a harmful factory without healthcare, and said he now limits himself to five or six films a year to focus on quality rather than quantity.
His experience mirrors a wider structural concern in an industry that ranks among the most prolific in the world. Nollywood produces well over a thousand titles a year and is one of Nigeria’s largest employers outside agriculture, yet questions around actor welfare, standardised fees and residual pay have persisted for years, occasionally surfacing in calls for a stronger guild framework.
The renewed attention on Okanlawon’s story also follows related commentary from colleagues. Actor and filmmaker Jide Awobona recently cautioned that a career in acting is not a guaranteed path to quick wealth, pointing to the personal sacrifices the profession often demands.
For younger performers weighing whether to stay the course, Okanlawon’s arc reads as both warning and encouragement. The walkaway that once looked like surrender preceded the most successful phase of his career, a reminder that in Nollywood, as he has put it, one often has to fight for what one deserves.