Biography

Niji Akanni is an established screenwriter and director in the Nigerian film and television practice. He holds a B.A. (Dramatic Arts) of the University of Ife, an M.A. (Film Studies) of the University of Ibadan, and an M.F.A (Screenplay Writing & Film Directing) of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He is currently enrolled on a PhD research programme at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, studying the traditional semiotics of Nollywood narrative and aesthetics.

He has written many award-winning films for first-rate Nigerian producers, including DANGEROUS TWINS and PLAYING GAMES (for Tade Ogidan), SAVING ALERO (for Francis Onwochei) and NARROW PATH (for Tunde Kelani).

His film directing credits include two documentaries WE SPEAK FOR US (a civil rights project funded by DFID for the International Press Centre, Lagos) and THE 11-DAY SIEGE (for the Women Advocacy, Research and Documentation Centre, WARD-C, Lagos)

He has directed three 35mm short films (JUST DO IT, HOLLYWOOD GOODBYES and VINI VIDI) as well as home-videos (JOGUN O MI, BOJUBOJU and EWE OJU OMI), and several TV Drama Series/Sitcoms, notably with Wale Adenuga Productions. He is currently the Director of NOWHERE TO BE FOUND, a weekly TV soap-opera, now in its fourth season and showing on 39 channels across Nigeria.

He has also featured as Director in all the top Reality TV shows in Nigeria, including AMSTEL MALTA BOX OFFICE (2005), BIG BROTHER NIGERIA (2006) and THE APPRENTICE AFRICA (2008). In 2009, he co-directed the second season of the OCEANIC BANK FOOTBALL TALENT HUNT TV Show featuring Jay Jay Okocha.

He directed ABOBAKU, a Super16mm short as Nigeria’s entry for the 2008 MNET New Directions project. This work was adjudged the Best Short Film at the 2010 ZUMA Film Festival in Abuja, Nigeria. It was also chosen as the Best Short Film at the TERRACOTA Film & Television Awards which held on July 17, 2010 in Lagos.