From award-winning actress to producer, studio founder and one of the forces behind Black Market, Omowunmi Dada is entering a powerful new chapter — one where telling African stories is no longer enough; she wants to change how the world experiences them.
There is a beautiful irony in what Omowunmi Dada is attempting right now.
For years, she has built her career one character at a time — walking onto sets, receiving scripts, interpreting someone else’s vision and leaving behind performances that reminded audiences why she remains one of Nollywood’s most dependable actors.
Now she is thinking about 50,000 people in one place. Not 50,000 Instagram likes. Not 50,000 streams. 50,000 human beings sitting together to watch an African story.
And somehow, that tells you everything about the woman Omowunmi Dada is becoming.
Before the records, partnerships and ambitious September 26 premiere, there was something much simpler: a woman who wanted to tell stories.
When Omowunmi founded Signet Ring Studios, her ambition wasn’t built around breaking records. She wanted greater creative freedom and, particularly, the opportunity to put Nigerian and African women at the centre of stories rather than leaving them permanently on the sidelines.When Omowunmi Dada founded Signet Ring Studios, her ambition wasn’t built around breaking records. She wanted greater creative freedom and, particularly, the opportunity to put Nigerian and African women at the centre of stories rather than leaving them permanently on the sidelines.
That vision has now found powerful collaborators. On Black Market, Signet Ring Studios joins forces with Nora Awolowo’s Rixel Studios and FilmOne Studios, bringing together a formidable young creative team. Omowunmi serves as co-producer and executive producer alongside fellow executive producers Nora Awolowo, Susan Pwajok, Mike Afolarin, Kene Okwuosa and FilmOne’s Ladun Awobokun, with Nora Awolowo and Nicole Ofoegbu producing the film.
Because Black Market isn’t merely another acting credit for Omowunmi. It represents the evolution of an actress into a builder.
She is an executive producer. She is a co-producer. She is part of the cast.
And through Signet Ring Studios, she is helping build the machinery that allows the story to exist in the first place.
For an artist who has spent more than a decade interpreting stories, there is something powerful about reaching the point where you can help decide which stories get told.
And Then Came Black Market: At its heart, Black Market is rooted in survival.
Omowunmi plays Adesua — “The Mother” — alongside an ensemble that includes Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Scarlet Gomez, Teniola Aladese, Susan Pwajok, Lateef Adedimeji, Itele D Icon, Uzor Arukwe, Andrew Yaw Bunting, Tomiwa Tegbe and others.
But what makes Omowunmi’s relationship with this film particularly interesting is that when the camera stops rolling, she doesn’t get to simply go home.
- She’s helping carry the project. That’s a completely different responsibility.
Actress. Producer. Founder. Builder.
Omowunmi’s career already had enough achievements to make remaining comfortably in front of the camera an understandable choice.
She has moved across theatre, television and film, with credits including Jemeji, Country Hard, Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti and Everybody Loves Jenifa. Her performance in Country Hard earned her the 2022 AMVCA for Best Supporting Actress.
She has even taken African storytelling into academia, teaching Nollywood and African storytelling at the University of Michigan.
But perhaps the most interesting thing about Omowunmi right now is that achievement hasn’t made her comfortable.
It appears to have made her more ambitious.
Signet Ring Studios represents a shift from asking:
“What role can I play?”
to asking:
“What can we build?”
And those are two very different questions.
September 26 Is Bigger Than a Premiere
Then there is the audacious part.
On September 26, 2026, Black Market is scheduled to premiere at Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos, where the team plans to gather 50,000 people for a single screening in an official attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest film screening audience in one location.
Read that number again. 50,000.
For perspective, the existing record stands at more than 43,000 attendees.
So this isn’t a glamorous premiere where a few hundred invited guests walk a carpet, watch the movie and go home.
This is an attempt to turn a Nigerian movie premiere into a mass cultural gathering.
And that’s what makes the idea fascinating.
If they succeed, the achievement will naturally belong to the entire team and every person who shows up.
But there is something particularly fitting about Omowunmi being one of the people pushing it forward.
A woman who started Signet Ring Studios because she wanted African stories — particularly women’s stories — to have more space is now helping invite tens of thousands of people into that space.
She Isn’t Doing It Alone — And That’s the Point
Great movements are rarely built by one person.
Black Market brings together Rixel Studios, FilmOne Studios and Signet Ring Studios, with the record-attempt event involving Switch Visuals Production.
The film is directed by Fatimah Binta Gimsay, who also co-wrote it with Abdul Tijani-Ahmed. Omowunmi is among the executive producers alongside a team that includes Susan Pwajok and Mike Afolarin, among others.
Omowunmi has never needed to be the loudest person in Nollywood to make her presence felt.
She has simply kept adding dimensions.
Actress. Theatre performer. Producer. Educator. Founder. Executive producer.
And now, one of the creatives attempting to turn a Nigerian film premiere into a piece of history.
Give Omowunmi Dada Her Flowers — But Watch What She’s Building Too
There is a tendency to celebrate actors only when they’re standing in front of us.
The beautiful performance. The award. The red carpet. The magazine cover.
But some of the most consequential work in cinema happens after the applause — in development meetings, production offices, financing conversations, casting decisions and those uncomfortable moments when somebody has to believe in an idea before the audience does.
That’s the chapter Omowunmi Dada appears increasingly interested in.
And perhaps that is why this moment deserves attention ahead of September 26.
We’re not simply watching an actress promote her next movie.
We’re watching an African creative take greater ownership of the stories she wants the world to see.
Whatever happens when those gates open at Tafawa Balewa Square, Black Market has already revealed something important about Omowunmi Dada:
She isn’t satisfied with simply having a successful career inside Nollywood.
She wants to help build what Nollywood can become next.
And if 50,000 people eventually sit together to witness that vision?
Then the woman who once wanted nothing more complicated than to tell meaningful stories will find herself standing in the middle of one very big one.The factual foundation here is particularly strong: the official project credits list Omowunmi as Adesua, co-producer and executive producer, and Signet Ring as a production partner; current reporting confirms the September 26 TBS event is targeting 50,000 attendees against the existing 43,624 record. Her broader transition into production and her stated focus on giving African women greater agency are documented in her August 2026 interview with Guardian Life.
