A recent article published on It’s A Wrap, written by Dami Dawson, has been moving through film and media circles with some force. The argument, stripped to its core, is this: Nigeria has no A-list actors. The claim is built on the Ulmer Scale, a 100-point system developed by entertainment journalist James Ulmer to measure Hollywood star bankability. By that measure, an A-lister is a performer whose name alone unlocks financing, distribution deals, and sustained media attention. A bankable star, in the industry’s own language, is someone whose attachment to a project can be reasonably expected to guarantee box office performance.
That is a very specific definition. And within its own terms, the argument has some validity.
The difficulty is in accepting Hollywood as the only framework worth using.
Hollywood is a particular industry. It has a particular financing structure, a particular distribution infrastructure, and more than a century of trade journalism, institutional data, and standardised measurement tools built around tracking star power. Nollywood was built differently. It was funded differently, distributed differently, and consumed differently. Applying Hollywood’s definition of A-list to a market that does not share Hollywood’s architecture is not a fair analytical exercise. It is the equivalent of measuring a tailor’s skill by whether he trained in Paris.
There is one point in Dawson’s article that is difficult to argue against. Nollywood does not have verified, widely agreed upon data to settle this conversation definitively. That is a real gap. The story goes that a UK distributor once asked a Nigerian director for a credible, tracked list of the industry’s most bankable performers and was unable to find one in any form that could be used professionally. That absence is a structural problem the industry must address. Some progress is being made. Party Jollof Africa has begun tracking actor metrics, measuring which performers’ films have performed at the Nigerian box office. That kind of system needs to be adopted more broadly and standardised. It is worth noting that the data problem is not unique to the film industry. Nigeria has the NIN, the BVN, the TIN, and a number of other national data collection frameworks, yet the country still struggles to translate collected data into practical use. This is a wider national challenge.
On the question of bankability itself, the argument needs to be grounded in market logic.
Denzel Washington is among the most recognised names in global cinema. No reasonable person disputes that. But if Washington were to appear in a Nigerian cinema release tomorrow, there is no evidence his name alone would drive Nigerian audiences into theatres the way it would in Los Angeles or Atlanta. The emotional connection is simply not there. Nigerian audiences have not grown up with him in the way they have grown up with Genevieve Nnaji or Funke Akindele. His name does not carry weight in this market, and that has nothing to do with his talent.
The same is true in the other direction. If Funke Akindele appeared in a film targeting mainstream American cinema audiences, her name would not move those tickets. That does not diminish her standing. It confirms something straightforward: bankability is market-specific. It is about emotional proximity, cultural familiarity, and the kind of trust that an audience builds with a performer over years of watching their work. Nollywood has performers who hold all three of those things within the Nigerian market. That is what A-list means here, and that is the definition that should apply.
The evidence, even by international standards, is not thin.
Genevieve Nnaji directed and starred in Lionheart in 2018. Netflix acquired the film, making it the first Netflix original from Nigeria. It screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Marrakech International Film Festival, and it became Nigeria’s first submission to the Academy Awards. Following the film’s release, Nnaji signed with a Hollywood-based talent agency. She also appeared in Farming, a British production directed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, alongside Kate Beckinsale, Damson Idris, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw. A name that opens a Netflix acquisition, earns an international agency signing, and crosses between two industries is not a name without weight.
Omotola Jalade Ekeinde starred in Ije in 2010, a film that toured American cinemas and won at the Las Vegas International Film Festival and the San Francisco Black Film Festival. Her career spans over 300 film credits, and her recognition extends well beyond the Nigerian market.
Sope Dirisu, of Nigerian heritage, starred in Gangs of London and leads My Father’s Shadow, the first Nigerian feature film selected for the Cannes Film Festival. He has been invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Chiwetel Ejiofor, born to Nigerian parents, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for 12 Years a Slave and has worked at the highest level of international cinema for more than two decades.
Within Nigeria, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Ramsey Nouah, Odunlade Adekola, Iyabo Ojo, Ibrahim Chatta, and Toyin Abraham are names whose presence in a film demonstrably influences audience decisions. Funke Akindele is the only filmmaker in Nollywood history to cross one billion naira at the box office on three separate occasions. Her film Behind the Scenes crossed two billion naira at the Nigerian box office, with Akindele serving as writer, director, producer, and lead performer. If that combination of commercial performance and creative authority does not constitute bankability in this market, the word has lost its meaning.
The argument that Nigeria has no A-list actors rests on a definition borrowed from a different industry and applied without accounting for the differences between the two markets. The conversation Dami Dawson has started is a useful one, and the data infrastructure question he raises is worth taking seriously. But the conclusion does not hold.
Nigeria has A-list actors. They work in a market that is still building the institutional systems to measure and communicate that properly. Those are two separate problems, and conflating them does not serve the industry.
