Blog

John Okafor (Mr Ibu): All You Need To Know About Him

Full Name: John Okafor
Stage Name: Mr.Ibu
Date of Birth: October 17, 1960
Nationality: Nigerian
Marriage status: Married.
Languages: Igbo, English.
Occupation: Actor, Comedian.
Awards: Best Comedy Drama, African Magic Viewer Choice Award.

John Okafor [Mr Ibu] Is Popular Nigerian Actor and Comedian In the Nollywood movie industry. Okafor is considered to be one of Nigeria’s most talented comic characters. His humorous acting is often characterised by stupidity, hilarious imbecility and a sharp disconnection from reality.
He has acted in more than 200 movies including Mr.Ibu (2004), Mr.Ibu in London (2004), Police Recruit (2003), 9 Wives (2005), Ibu in Prison (2006) and Keziah (2007).

EARLY LIFE AND BACKGROUND
John Okafor is a man who had a rough background in which himself said his family is the “Poorest” in his village in Enugu state. He said he gained his comic inspiration from his grandfather in which has helped him a lot. He once lost a child. And was once a Hairdresser and also was once a butcher.

CAREER & LIFE
His acting career began on December 3, 1978, according to him. He said he started as a Continuity in movies in his words: “The issue is that I had never seen myself coming in front of the camera. I was initially involved in Continuity, not until the directors and producers started persuading me to come on board to act. They saw my interpretation of movie roles to be better and more original.

It wasn’t as if I was running away from acting, I only wanted to specialize in my Continuity job, being behind the cameras. So at a point, I started acting once in a while. I later asked myself, ‘Ibu, wetin you dey wait, go and concentrate on the thing’. So I took advantage of the opportunity from my Producers and Directors who loved me so much.”

He explains how stressful it was back then as an upcoming actor; says he has to trek from Ajao Estate to Festac Lagos state for Auditionings and rehearsals on a daily basis. He came into limelight in 2004 in one of the movies he was featured titled “MR IBU” which actually gave him the popular nickname: MR IBU because of his funny role as a father of a troublesome kid which makes fool of him always.

Before then he has shown in lots of very popular movies in the 90’s And since then he has remained consistent in the movie industry. He earns Hundreds of thousand naira to participate in any movie presently. He is also a man who respects his family a lot he speaks of them and appreciates his Wife.

AWARDS & ENDORSEMENTS

BEST COMEDY DRAMA. AFRICAN MAGIC VIEWER CHOICE AWARD
He was said to have won other awards including international awards
Entered an endorsement deal with merrybet in 2014.
And also entered an endorsement deal with Gotv in 2014.

RUMOUR AND SCANDALS

He was once said to have gone crazy for money in 2012; he entered a stage full of crowd almost nude for crowd’s attention and money which made people questioned him a lot.