Kunle Afolayan is a Nigerian actor, producer, and director.
Gatekeepers News reports that Afolayan is CEO of Golden Effects Pictures, a Nigerian film and production company incorporated in 2005.
Early Life
Afolayan, an Igbomina-Yoruba descent, from Kwara State, North Central, Nigeria, was born on 30 September 1975. He is the son of the theatre and film director Ade Love (Adeyemi Afolayan)
His siblings Gabriel Afolayan, Aremu Afolayan, and Moji Afolayan are well known for their contributions to Nollywood.
Early Career
He studied economics and started out working in a bank while doing some casual acting, before deciding to move into full-time filmmaking and taking a course at the New York Film Academy.
After starting his film career as an actor in the 1999 political drama Saworoide, Afolayan made his directorial debut in 2006 with Irapada, a Nigerian supernatural thriller, which won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Film in an African Language.
He has been active in the Nigerian film industry since 2005. He has made several films including The Figurine: Araromire (Yoruba and English languages) and Phone Swap. The Figurine won five major awards from the African Film Academy and was successful in Nigerian movie theaters.
In 2011, Afolayan appeared at the Subversive Film Festival where he represented the Nigerian film industry with his colleague Zeb Ejiro. In May 2013, Phone Swap premiered in France at the first edition of NollywoodWeek Paris and won the Public Choice Award.
Afolayan is widely credited for elevating the quality of Nollywood movies through larger budgets, shooting on 35mm, releasing in cinemas, and improving cliché Nollywood storylines.
His follow-on directing credits include October 1, and Citation. October 1 was the winner of 16 major African movie awards in 2015 and the second highest-grossing Nigerian film in Nigerian cinemas at the time of its release, a feat Afolayan was to repeat two years later with The CEO.
In 2021, he signed a three-picture deal with Netflix. Swallow, the screen adaption of Sefi Atta’s book of the same name was the first to be released in October 2021, followed by Aníkúlápó, an epic Nigerian fantasy released in September 2022.
Personal Life
Afolayan got married to Tolu in 2007, they had two children (Diekola and Darasimi) together. Kunle earlier had a child (Eyiyemi) before they got married.
The couple, however, separated and divorced in 2019.
Net Worth
Afolayan’s estimated net worth is between an estimate of $2 Million – $5 Million.
