I have always known about Daniel Etim Effiong. Perhaps not very well but I have always seen him around in movies and on the web. But after he danced to the stage of AMVCA to receive the Best Movie East Africa for the Kenyan movie “Plan B” in which he co-starred with Sarah Hassan, he became a larger fixture in the shows in the movies I watched or rewatched. He must have always been this large but I didn’t pay so much heed. Today, I am writing his bio.
In the beginning
Daniel was born in Jaji, a military town between Kaduna and Zaria in Kaduna State. His father was in the Nigerian Army. As with military families, they moved a lot. Before his WAEC, the Effiong family moved to Benin City then Lagos and Abuja. A larger amount of Daniel’s formative years were spent in Lagos where the family stayed the longest. He is an old boy of St Mary’s Private School, Lagos Island and Government College, Ikorodu.
Daniel Etim had his university education in the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, where he bagged a degree in Chemical Engineering.
Daniel Etim Effiong’s career: From oil to the screen
Done with NYSC, Etim began to work in many children’s dreams, an oil and gas firm. But this didn’t last as he made the transfer into Nollywood. “I had a strong conviction that I was going to make films,” he told Punch in September 2019. He didn’t know how it would happen but he knew it would. He once contemplated ditching chemical engineering and go write JAMB and study Theatre Arts. More than contemplating, he told his family this but they talked him out of it. “Finish your engineering, first, Danny Boy,” they must have told him.
He finished and got what many would consider a lucrative job at the famed oil and gas sector. But his love for the arts and theatre didn’t abate. “While working as an engineer, I went on production sets and attended auditions till I started landing roles,” he added. “One day, I felt very strongly that it was time to make the shift. I didn’t tell anyone because that would have scared my family.”
So he traveled to South Africa where he studied film making, writing, and directing at the AFDA Film School. After this, he did a course in Film Making at the University of Johannesburg. Before this time, he had already appeared in a few minor roles and on Web series including Ndani TV’s “Gidi Up” and Raconteur Productions’ “Goddammit, it’s Monday”. Going to South Africa where he spent three years was more about equipping himself for “the journey ahead”.
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Etim has gone on to feature in TV shows and films including Ebony TV’s “Castle and Castle” which also has RMD and Dakore Egbuson in the cast, Red TV’s series “The Men’s Club” with Efa Iwara, Ayoola Ayolola, and Sharon Ooja, Africa Magic’s “Brethren” produced by legendary producer Femi Odugbemi which premiered in late 2019 where he acted opposite Frankincense Eche-Ben who played the role of his brother and nemesis; the show also has Akin Lewis in the cast.
Others include “Òlòtūré”, a movie about human trafficking by Ebony Life which stars Sharon Ooja in the title role and also has Omoni Oboli, Sambasa Nzeribe, and Beverly Osu, and Segun Arinze; Anakle and US Mission in Nigeria collaboration movie “FishBone” with Shaffy Bello, a passing role in AM “Battleground: Final Showdown”, etc.
And how can we forget “Plan B” for which he was nominated for Best Actor in a Movie or TV series at the last AMVCA?
And we dare not not mention the fact that Etim is an amazing filmmaker as well. He directed Beverly Naya’s award-winning “Skin” documentary which has garnered great reviews in and outside Africa and which you can now watch on Netflix.
Family
Daniel Etim Effiong is a family man. He is married to Toyosi Phillips, a TV host and producer. The two must have met on the set of “Gidi Up” where Toyosi was the production manager. It is not hard to tell why the two hit it off as they have a lot in common. Like, Effiong, Toyosi used to have a lucrative job. She was an internal auditor in some big commercial bank. But she wanted to be in the arts so she resigned and left to the United States where she studied Broadcast Journalism at the New York Film Academy. Like her man, she spent three years abroad.
When she returned, she became the host of “The Gist With Toyosi Philips” on Sahara TV which at so many points was their biggest column. She is also a philanthropist and the founder of Taiwo Olawale Phillips Memorial Sickle Cell Endowment Fund in memory of her father who passed away in 1998 from sickle cell complications.
Toyosi and Daniel got married in November 2017 in what was tagged #YorubaEfikMerger. Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Etim Effiong are blessed with a baby born to them in January 2019.
On how his wife relates to his career, Etim sums it thus, “She is a huge support.”
Image source: Instagram and CNN
