53 Things You Never Knew About Nollywood Actress, Patience Ozokwor

Prior to her incursion into acting, very little was known about this actress but within the halls of the Nigerian movie industry, Patience Ozokwor has become something of an icon and her horde of teeming fans and the level of recognition she has enjoyed bear a strong testimony to this.


So much has been said and written about this actress but like actresses in her mould, there have been certain misconceptions and distorted facts about her.

In this piece, we will delve into the unassailable facts in the life of this actress, her memorable moments, her career and other aspects of her professional and personal life.

• Patience Ozokwor also bears the moniker ‘Mama G’
• She has been cast in over 200 movies
• She was born on March 25, 1958 in Ngwo, Enugu
• She hails from Amaobo village
• Despite being typecast as a wicked woman, this does not portray her true personality
• Patience Ozokwor attended Abimbola Gibson Memorial School in Lagos
• She gained admission into Methodist Girls, Yaba but in the heat of the political crisis that culminated into the civil war, she was forced to relocate to Enugu
• At a point, her father insisted that she was too young to be in the secondary school and that she should go back to Class Five
• She obeyed her father’s wishes went two steps backwards in her education and later re-wrote the Common Entrance Examinations that she had earlier passed
• She was eventually admitted to Girls Secondary School, Ngwo, where she had her entire secondary education
• After she completed her secondary school education, her grades weren’t good and she went on to write the G.C.E, which she passed
• She got married immediately after her secondary school education
• Patience Ozokwor later attended Teachers Training College in Afikpo from where she proceeded to IMT Enugu where she studied Fine and Applied Arts, specialising in Graphics
• Despite studying Fine and Applied Arts, she did not practice it professionally
• Unlike other Nollywood actresses, she never had any dreams of becoming an actress when she was much younger
• She worked as a teacher for about four years before venturing into broadcasting
• The actress was employed as an announcer with FRCN Enugu and was later retrenched when they closed down all the medium wave band stations
• After her stint with broadcasting, she delved into the business of buying and selling
• During her teacher training days in Afikpo, she had a competent Literature teacher who made them present a play each term. When it was the turn of her set to present a play, she was given the role of Hamlet in William Shakespeare’s play of the same title and the production came out fine
• Other schools that offered Hamlet as a subject paid to watch their production
• She and her crew were invited to stage the play in so many other places in South Eastern Nigeria
• Patience Ozokwor became so popular; she earned the name ‘Hamlet’ wherever she went
• Chika Okpala (Chief Zebrudaya of New Masquerades) invited her to take part in a commercial where she played the wife of Pete Eneh
• The commercial was a mass orientation promo by the Anambra State Government to encourage citizens to acquire education before venturing into trading.
• The commercial generated such a positive reaction, Chief Zebrudaya himself was so impressed, he said, ‘what have you been doing with yourself, where are you, I am so impressed.’ He later confessed he never knew that he was doing the right thing by inviting her for the commercial
• When Pete Eneh had the opportunity of shooting a serial titled ‘Someone Cares’ for a television station, he gave her the lead role
• During the shooting of the serial, many of the established faces that saw her commended her. They urged her not to light the candle and keep it under the table.
• As a member of the Scripture Union, she felt coming into Nollywood would give her too much popularity considering her shy nature
• She was eventually reeled in by those who believed in her abilities
• She was cast in her first movie was in 1998
• The movie that shot her into the limelight was ‘Authority’ in 1999
• She has been cast alongside prominent names like Ini Edo, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Rita Dominic, Pete Edochie, Genevieve Nnaji, Ramsey Nouah, Van Vicker, Mike Ezuruonye Oge Okoye, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Chioma Chukwuka and many others
• Patience Ozokwor has played the role of mother to a large number of prominent Nollywood actors and actress with the exception of a few. She often jokes with Olu Jacobs and Pete Edochie that they have refused to let her play their mother in movies
• She lost her husband to a terminal ailment
• She has three biological children but because of her love for children, she adopted five other children who bear her name and she is very proud of them
• Her first son is an engineer
• She is very hard working
• Her daughter, Chioma Nnenna Lameya Ozokwor got married in Enugu on March 2010
• The actress has become synonymous with playing the role of a wicked character and she once explained her penchant for this role. “When I play the role of a bad woman, I see myself at that instance as a mirror through which I want society to see and appreciate the fact that it is not good to be bad. This is the reason I do it with so much passion that it becomes almost believable and by extension, I also see such roles as an opportunity to minister to lost and wicked souls that jealousy, hatred, envy and all the likes can only bring one to ruins.”
• She once admitted that she is very lazy at reading scripts over and over again. “As soon as a script is given to me, I get into the character as soon as I read a few lines from any scene in the script...”
• Patience Ozokwor memorises her lines easily
• Some of the movies she has been cast in include ‘Turning Point,’ ‘The Wish’, ‘Heavy Storm (video),’ ‘Missing Child,’ ‘Missing Child 2,’ ‘Personal Desire,’ ‘Personal Desire 2,’ ‘Act of Faith 2,’ ‘After My Heart,’ ‘After My Heart 2,’ ‘After My Heart 3,’ ‘Bottom of My Heart,’ ‘Critical Truth,’ ‘Female Lion,’ ‘Heart of a Slave,’ ‘Heaven After Hell (video),’ ‘Husband My Foot,’ ‘Indian Doctor,’ ‘Marcus 'D' Millionaire,’ ‘Naked Wrestler,’ ‘Onoja,’ ‘Plane Crash,’ ‘Sin No More,’ ‘Strength to Strength,’ ‘Stubborn Doctor,’ ‘The Evil Queen,’ ‘The Plain Truth,’ ‘The Wrong Money,’ ‘Area Mama,’ ‘Away Match,’ ‘Blood Apart,’ ‘Divine Twins,’ ‘Evil Agenda,’ ‘Final Kingdom,’ ‘Goddess of the Sun,’ ‘Help Me Out,’ ‘Highest Offence,’ ‘Holy Man,’ ‘I Need a Husband,’ ‘Kingdom Apart,’ ‘Legal War,’ ‘Lions Den,’ ‘Lost in the Jungle,’ ‘Love and Age,’ ‘Love and Likeness,’ ‘Mountains of Evil,’ ‘Naked Kingdom,’ ‘Old Testament,’ ‘Only Daughter,’ ‘Passion of My Blood,’ ‘Pride of a Woman,’ ‘Saved by Sin,’ ‘Silent Rage 2,’ ‘Try & See,’ ‘Unfinished Business,’ ‘Will of God,’ ‘The Monster: Demon In-Law 3,’ ‘Abuja Top Ladies,’ ‘Aguba Igogoro’ and ‘Alice My First Lady’ amongst others.
• She was honoured with a Centenary award for her sterling contribution to the industry and the image of the country
• She admits that Nollywood has transformed Nigeria’s image abroad positively
• Some of the disappointing experiences she had as during her early forays into acting included arriving at a location and being told that her role had been given to someone else
• Patience Ozokwor lost her husband in the year 2000
• She was on location when her husband passed away. “They informed me about his death and they put him in the mortuary and asked me to continue with my job, because they understand my kind of job, but I blatantly refused. I took permission from the producer and stayed away for some days. I later came back to finish the production of the movie.”
• Her mum was a popular trader
• To stay healthy and maintain her look, she eats what her body needs, eats a lot of fruits and exercises when it’s necessary
• She does not consume alcoholic drinks. “I don’t drink alcohol because I have realized that alcohol does a lot of damage to the body and makes you look older than your age.”
• Outside movie sets, she is a loving mother, nice, caring, jovial, understanding, and above all God fearing. “But I don’t take nonsense because I am a disciplinarian.”
• She launched her shopping plaza in Enugu on March 29, 2014
• Patience Ozokwor recently expressed her unhappiness on the abduction of schoolgirls in Chibok by the Boko Haram sect

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By: SAMOD BIOBAKU