Nollywood actress, Bukky Ajayi, is dead

Nollywood actress Bukky Ajayi died after a battle with heart-related issues today July 6. Here are some facts about the respectable late Nigerian movie veteran. She was born a Christian but converted to Islam in the early eighties and chose the name Zainab.

Her love for the theatre started as a young girl when her father used to take her to the cinemas.

When she was a very young , her interest for acting was so much that she used to do a cardboard sort of cinema for children, and used to charge them half a penny to come and watch. She studied in England for six years as a federal government scholar. She started working in Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) as a presentation assistant in 1966, a year after she got back from England.

Afterwards, she became a presenter and then a news reader. She presented a couple of children’s programs and Nigerian’s Sketches, a program which was all about Nigerian culture, and Diran Ajijedidun of blessed memory was her producer. She was later transferred to Port Harcourt and later back to Lagos, and it was at that time she started her acting career. She started with the Village Headmaster in the 70s, and she later got a role in Amaka Igwe’s Checkmate. She featured in so many home videos that she also lost count before her demise – her popular movies include Mother of George, Indecent Girl, Diamond Ring, Witches, and Thunderbolt among others. The shooting of international film Critical Assignment in South Africa, was one of the events of her life that she will never forget. It gave her an opportunity to see how movies are done elsewhere.