{
  "id": 6144464,
  "title": "I began acting 30 years before Nollywood emerged – Pete Edochie",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/07/i-began-acting-30-years-before-nollywood-emerged-pete-edochie",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-07T15:37:38.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Adom Online",
    "slug": "adom-online",
    "url": "https://www.adomonline.com/i-began-acting-30-years-before-nollywood-emerged-pete-edochie/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": null,
  "summary": "Veteran Nigerian actor Pete Edochie has made a bold claim that his acting career predates the emergence of Nollywood, asserting that he first took to the stage in 1962 at the age of 15. In an interview, Edochie challenged anyone who considers themselves his senior in the acting profession to come forward and prove otherwise. He recalled that his first major stage appearance was in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, a time when acting in Nigeria was largely centred on the theatre. Edochie further stated that he featured in the television adaptation of Things Fall Apart in 1985, seven years before the term Nollywood became associated with Nigeria’s home-video industry, and that he was among only two African actors recognised by the American film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}