If I make a thousand naira for every time I write about Nigerian stars who were born in the United Kingdom, I would be a rich woman in all currencies. And it is always London. In my idle time, I envision Nigerians arrive Heathrow Airport in London but now running short of money, just settle in Airport Road. Even when their condition improves, they still remain in London and bear children. If I make a thousand naira for every time idleness makes my mind run wild, I would be richer than Alakija. Here is everything you need to know about Zainab Balogun who now, sometimes, goes with the name Zainab Balogun-Nwachukwu.
Zainab Balogun – the British connection
Zainab Balogun was born in October 1989 in London to Nigerian parents from Abeokuta in Ogun State. She studied Law, Psychology, and English Language & Literature for her A levels in Christ the King Sixth Form. For university proper, she attended the University of Kent in Medway. She studied law.
Zainab Balogun was discovered when she was aged 16 and she became a model on a low key while she studied. After university, she did all kinds of entertainment, including being part of a girls’ music band, appearing in a BBC One show, a Bollywood film and a film by the popular director of “Inception” and “Interstellar” Christopher Nolan, something she relishes till date. As a model, she was a participant in the New York and London fashion weeks.
Zainab Balogun is 30 years old.
Zainab Balogun – career
Zainab Balogun who names Lupita Nyong’o as one of her role models is not one of those people whose film credits come in the hundreds. Her film credits are actually countable but they are memorable. She was in “The Wedding Party” where she played the role of an energetic, dramatic and exasperating event player Wonu. She was in “Chief Daddy” where her role as a calm daughter of the title character with Shaffy Bello and a close friend and sounding board of her brother Mawuli Gavor was rather a fish out of water grounds for her. This should be one of her weakest roles on the screen. Zainab more than makes up for this with her title role in “Sylvia” and “God Calling” for which she was rewarded with two nominations for Best Actress in a Drama in AMVCA 7th edition– one for each of her 2018 movies.
And Zainab is not even a full-time actress. She is a host and producer of talk shows and an on-air personality for which she has won a handful of awards with EbonyLife TV and elsewhere. Zainab spends a lot of her time in the United Kingdom. When she is not flying, she is running The J-ist TV, a web TV.
Marriage
Zainab is married to Dikko Nwachukwu whom she describes as “the definition of kindness, of partnership, of love, of understanding”. Dikko Nwachukwu is a business tycoon and owner of Jetwest Airways. He is a rich man, with that kind of name he had to be. “I have never particularly dated guys for what they had or what they can give me,” Balogun told Ndani TV in an interview, pointing out that he is someone who loves what she does and pushes her.
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In 2014, in an interview with Fabulous Magazine, Balogun said this of what she wanted in a man: “As long as he is smart, has some ambition, religious, and handsome I’m good.” Did Dikko tick all these boxes? Maybe. Or love just happened.
As per how she met Dikko, Zainab said it was Chigurl the comedian. “She has got the spirit. I don’t know how many marriages Chioma has got under her belt. She was I have a guy that really likes you. We always joke and call you Slaynab. So we met, we had coffee. I wasn’t sure so I was like we should just be really good friends. We just built a really good bond and he became someone that I would talk to all the time.”
Dikko Nwachukwu has been married before and only became single when he lost his wife in 2015. Zainab married him in May 2018 and became a stepmother to his children whom she said she is great friends with.
Bonus fact: Zainab Balogun is a Christian.
Image source: Guardian Nigeria
