Star Actor Abolade Balogun is among the wave-making stars in Canada and has featured in lots of movies and series. in this interview with city people he talked about his journey into the movie industry, how his physique paved way for him and the many challenges movie makers abroad go through.
Journey in the movie industry and challenges.
I always have intentions and the vibe to act for years, i initially started doing skits in Dubai with a group of friends but my first opportunity infront of the camera in Canada came when I was approached at a birthday party by Oluwafemi Ayeyemi(baba legba) and Adewale Donald (Director) who approached me for a non audible role as a rented boyfriend in a series called Mr and Mrs Animashaun mainly because of my physique.
This paved way for my break out movie produced by Rachel Oyiza and Directed by Adewale Donald Titled “Tomiwa’ where I played a lead role as ‘Femi’. Other skits and short movies like the Baba Legba series, on going production series ‘Madam cash’ by Lola Alao, a lead role in a short movie called ‘Wrong Perception’ produced by captain Cash Entertainment and directed by Adewale Donald, others include “What went wrong” a short movie produced by Fadekemi Momoh, “DIMA” produced by Adewale Donald, a movie called ‘Exhale’ produced by Deborah Ewedefa, Naijawivesoftoronto series season 2, other upcoming movies are Tori Ola where I played a lead role, produced by Fadekemi Momoh and SorrowGate produced by myself.
In all of this, there are challenges we go through as actors and producers in Canada which is currently hindering the growth of movie production in the Diaspora. Issues like funding, less time availability for movie production because we get almost nothing from movie acting here , so we all have to maintain our jobs to fund ourselves and pay bills.
Family and Educational background.
Abolade Balogun is my name from Ogun state, Nigeria, but brought up in Lagos, Nigeria. A graduate of Demography and social Statistics at the Obafemi Awolowo university Ile-ife Nigeria. The second child of 4, 3 boys and a girl. I was born on 1st of july,1984, I’m a Behavior health worker, Married and based in Canada.
Plan for my career in the next few years is to break into the biggest movie scene both in Nollywood and Hollywood. My prospects are fast rising as I already got nicknames like ‘Odunlade of Canada and RMD of Canada’ these are encouraging names for me because these actors are already well established and I hope to work with them soon, but my ambitions are far greater and I’m working to surpass them by learning from them and infusing my own theatrical style to form a brand name for myself.I also got nominated for an award recently as the “Best fast-rising actor in Diaspora 2021” by the Yoruba movie Gists awards.
I am currently working on many different projects and productions. Right now we are in the middle of a movie production called ‘Tori Ola’ and another movie called ‘Sorrowgate’. Most movie productions lined up for me have been moved to next year 2022 when we would be in full production status.
