Nollywood actress, Adesua Etomi, has made history as the first ever Nigerian actress to be featured on the cover of VOGUE. And we’re talking “Vogue Vogue” y’all! American Vogue o.
It’s April 2019 issue celebrates female global superstars and it features Adesua beautifully photographed alongside other prominent actresses across the world by renowned photographer, Mikael Jansson.
Other actresses featured include: Angela Baby, Doona Bae, Elizabeth Debicki, Golshifteh Farahani, Liv Lisa Fries, Eiza Gonzalez, Hera Hilmar, Scarlett Johansson, Vanessa Kirby, Bruna Marquezine, Deepika Padukone, Alba Rohrwacher and Lea Seydoux.
Here’s what the publication had to say about Adesua:
“The Nigerian actress Adesua Etomi-Wellington can’t walk down the street in Lagos without getting mobbed, and if she’s with her husband, the actor Banky Wellington, forget it—a trip to the grocery store launches a thousand selfies. But unlike some of her cohorts on the shoot, she’s more of a third-culture kid, born in Nigeria and raised mainly in England. (She speaks in two fluent accents—Lagos and the British Midlands.) She went to school in Coventry, studied drama at University of Wolverhampton, and then got a nine-to-five job with the fashion arm of a large supermarket chain. It was then that, as she puts it, “I can’t explain it—I felt I had to go back to Nigeria.”
That was toward the end of 2012, and in the past six years or so she has become one of the biggest stars in Nollywood, Nigeria’s relatively young film industry. The Wedding Party (2016), a colorful and witty romantic comedy in which she plays the lead opposite Wellington, was the highest-grossing film in the history of Nigerian cinema, until it was eclipsed by its sequel, which also starred Etomi-Wellington. In fact, she points out, of the four films that have done best for the relatively young industry, she is in three. “I love, love, love Nollywood,” Etomi-Wellington says brightly over tea and biscuits at the shoot. “I feel like she’s my baby, and it’s my responsibility, along with a lot of other performers, to grow her.”
Her husband Banky W, who we know supports her immensely, was actually the first person to announce the news on Instagram:
