Award-winning actress and self-acclaimed ‘Queen of Ticktok’ in Nigeria, Iyabo Ojo has been awarded the best creative TikTok influencer.
Ojo was honoured with the award at the just concluded Social Media Hangout which was held at the Monarch Event Center in Ikate Elegushi, Lagos.
The convener, Florence Bodex Hungbo, who presented the award to the sultry actress said that the decision to honour Iyabo with the award was engineered by her numerous followers and engagement on TikTok.
Iyabo, through her creative prowess, dragged attention to herself thereby gaining global recognition. “As we speak Iyabo is the Queen of TikTok in Nigeria and by chance West Africa. Her videos are amazing and they will crack you up. She has a very wide mileage which has attracted audiences from different walks of life.
Social media hangout organizers are appreciating her for putting her craft on the world stage thereby encouraging upcoming influencers and social media users that Social media is a platform that can be used to create magic, not for negative vices.”
Alice Iyabo Ojo (born 21 December 1977) is a Nigerian film actress, director, and producer. She has featured in over 150 films, and has produced more than 14 of her own.
Iyabo Ojo was born as Alice Iyabo Ogunro on 21 December 1977 in Lagos, Nigeria, although her father was from Abeokuta, Ogun State. She was the youngest of three children, having two older brothers. She went to school in Lagos at National College, Gbagbada, before proceeding to study Estate Management at Lagos State Polytechnic.
Having been involved in a drama group at secondary school, Iyabo Ojo commenced her acting career in 1998. She registered with the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) through the help of Bimbo Akintola, she also able to network to other people
Ojo has scripted and featured in several Nigerian films. Her first role was in 1998’s Satanic, an English-language film. In 2002, she made her Yoruba-language debut with Baba Darijinwon. In January 2015, her film Silence, which features Joseph Benjamin Alex Usifo, Fathia Balogun, and Doris Simeon, premiered at the Silverbird Cinemas, Ikeja, in Lagos.
In 2004, Ojo started producing her own films. Her first production was Bolutife, after which she made Bofeboko, Ololufe, Esan and Okunkun Biribiri. She also divorced her husband before her fame started.
Marrying a Lagos-based movie marketer in 1999, when she was 21, Iyabo took a break from pursuing her career. She gave birth to a son and then a daughter (born in 1999 and 2001 respectively), namely Felix Ojo and Priscilla Ajoke Ojo, but is now divorced from their father. She has attributed the breakup of her first marriage to marrying too young. She has spoken of her intention to stop using her former husband’s surname, Ojo.
Iyabo Ojo launched her NGO, Pinkies Foundation, which caters to the children with special needs and the less privileged, in May 2011. She celebrated the fifth anniversary of the foundation on 1 May 2016 at the R&A City Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.