Mo Abudu Isn’t Ready for Permission

Abudu’s takeaway? “In the event you don’t take the accountability to vary the narrative, whenever you go away your storytelling to another person, then you may’t blame them,” she mentioned.

By 2013, “Moments” had made Abudu a family identify in Nigeria. Seeing alternatives, Abudu went full Winfrey and began a Pan-African tv community: EbonyLife TV. In 2020, Abudu’s umbrella firm, EbonyLife Media, deserted its TV channel to concentrate on a mannequin based mostly on partnerships with a few of the world’s greatest streamers and studios.

Immediately, amongst what Abudu described as “over 30 offers,” many not but introduced, EbonyLife Media has contracts with Netflix, Sony Footage Tv, AMC and Westbrook Studios, the manufacturing firm based by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

“I’ve been knocking on these worldwide doorways from Day 1,” she mentioned, “however you understand, individuals weren’t able to pay attention.”

At the beginning of EbonyLife TV, in 2013, the mission centered on life-style programming that showcased the booming, cosmopolitan continent of the twenty first century. However Abudu has been steadily flexing her muscle tissue and broadening her artistic palette.

“Fort & Fort,” which Abudu co-created and government produces, is a couple of Lagos regulation agency run by a husband and spouse, whose respective circumstances threaten to destroy their marriage. With that sequence, Abudu wished to concentrate on authorized points that had been particular to Nigeria. In a single episode, for instance, “there’s a case round lesbianism,” she mentioned. “It’s truly nonetheless unlawful to be in a gay relationship in Nigeria.”