Actress Ego Boyo has explained why she stepped away from acting after her rise to fame.
Speaking in a snippet from her upcoming interview with Chude Jideonwo, the former Checkmate star said she chose to leave acting to focus on producing.
“I stopped acting because I wanted to produce,” she said.
“I found that I enjoyed producing more than I enjoyed acting.”
Ego, who played Anne Haastrup in the popular 90s soap Checkmate and starred in Amaka Igwe’s Violated, also dismissed long-standing rumours that her husband stopped her from acting.
“The blogs then wanted it to be something like my husband banned me from acting… they wanted it to be sensational and it was not. So it was boring,” she said.
Ego Boyo became a household name in the early 90s through her role in Checkmate, which aired on NTA. She later featured in the 1996 romantic drama Violated, also directed by Amaka Igwe, which was a major success in the home video era.
After her acting stint, she set up Temple Productions and moved into film and TV production. Through her company, she produced the acclaimed films Keeping Faith, A Hotel Called Memory and The Ghost and the House of Truth.
Apart from her work in entertainment, Ego Boyo is also known for her advocacy work. She is a former president of the International Women’s Society (IWS) and the founder of Tempio Media Advocacy & Information Foundation.
In 2024, she was listed in Vogue UK’s Forces for Change campaign, nominated by writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for her work in women’s empowerment.
Ego studied Theatre Arts at the University of Benin. She has remained a respected voice in Nollywood even while away from the screen.
