Zulu Adigwe

Remember Mr B, the popular character in the late Ken Saro Wiwa's soap, Bassey and company who would always fantasize about making his millions in the 80's? His name is Zulu Adigwe. Zulu is unarguably one of the finest theatre artistes to have come out from the African continent.

Although he came in as a replacement for Mr. Albert Egbe after the latter pulled out of the comedy series, Adigwe was able to prove himself and that marked the beginning of his steady rise to fame. Unarguably, one of the finest artistes to have ever emerged from Africa, Adigwe who made a first class from the University of Ibadan is a thoroughbred professional. Zulu has put in over two decades of practice as a crossover artiste and has traversed the stage, TV, home videos and music.


Journey into showbiz www.nigeriamovies.net
I started performing at the age of seven but professionally, I started in Europe in 1970 when I got into university. I had my first experience in film business, I was in the university and I was already in the professional field. I did a lot of things outside showbiz but showbiz was the main thing. Outside showbiz, I have been a teacher, I have taught at nursery schools, I have taught in primary school, secondary and the university level. I still teach but not in institutions, I teach privately because I love impacting knowledge into people who want to come into showbiz.

Coming to Nollywood
I joined Nollywood in 1999. My first movie was Blood of the Orphan. I came into Lagos on invitation from friends who knew me. I was acting in Bassey and Company in Enugu and in 1987 Bassey and Company was rested. Before that time, I had come into Lagos to feature in Checkmate, I was a pioneer cast in Checkmate but something prompted me to hold on and I stayed in Enugu. In 1998, people started prompting me to come to Lagos but before then, I was already resident in Abuja.

First movie www.nigeriamovies.net
The first movie I did was Blood of the Orphan and from there people picked interest in me. Till date, I have lost count of the number of movies that I have featured in


Family
I have three kids, two boys and one girl. My wife's name is Blessing. I met her in Nsukka. I had relations in Nsukka who were neighbours of my wife's people. She got so used to my profession and when we got our first son, I travelled out of the country. I was in the U.S for two months and we'll be celebrating our silver jubilee as married couple soon.

Views on Nollywood www.nigeriamovies.net
I think that I am extremely proud of the classification of our film industry. It shows and exhibits the enormous talents in this country. This is an industry that government has not made any iota of input and it grew to be the third largest globally. So, that tells you what Nigerians can do. I have done so many things for this country free of charge, just to make things function. We were doing things in those days at National Theatre, running up an down with our resources and getting no feed back, we just wanted to do it.

Vision www.nigeriamovies.net
I don't have any special dream or vision because I believe an artiste is born to serve humanity, it is a professional service. Although people say let me be a star so that I can make money, but for me money is secondary. I want to have something to contribute to humanity.