ICONS: Tunde Kelani

• Born 26 February, 1948 in Lagos, Nigeria.

• Tunde Kelani is a Nigerian filmmaker, storyteller, director, photographer, cinematographer and producer. He has had a career spanning more than four decades. He specialises in producing movies that promote Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and have a root in documentation, archiving, education, entertainment and promotion of the culture. He is also known for his love of adaptation of literary materials into movies.

• At age five, he was sent to live with his grand parents at Abeokuta in Ogun State. There, he attended Oke-Ona Primary School in Ikija, Abeokuta and had his secondary school education at Abeokuta Grammar School. During this time, his grandfather was a Chief (the Balogun of Ijaiye Kukudi) and he was priviledged to have witnessed most aspects of Yoruba ways of life, the Yoruba religion, literature, philosophy, environments and Yoruba worldview in arts at close quarters.

• The rich Yoruba culture and tradition he experienced in his early years, coupled with the experience he garnered at the London Film School where he studied the Art of filmmaking, prepared him for what he is doing today.

• In 1990, Kelani was an assistant director and an actor in the 1990 film Mister Johnson, the first American film shot on location in Nigeria.

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• In 1991, he started his own production company, Mainframe Films and Television Productions – Opomulero. At Mainframe, he has produced movies such as Ti Oluwa Nile, Ayo Ni Mo Fe, Koseegbe, Oleku, Thunderbolt (Magun), Saworoide, Agogo Eewo, The Campus Queen, Abeni, Narrow Path, Arugba and Maami.

• Tunde Kelani will clock 74 on Saturday, 26 February, 2022.