Nollywood actor Raph Niyi has recounted how he lost a role in a movie after a production assistant reportedly informed the project manager that he was Yoruba rather than Igbo.
Speaking during an interview from 21:28 on African A-List on Saturday, October 3, 2026, Niyi said the production team initially told him he could not play the character he had been considered for but offered him another role with just three scenes.
He said he accepted the explanation at the time, believing the producers did not want to waste his talent.
“To me it was a genuine reason. They said I couldn’t play the role. They said they didn’t want to waste me so they gave me another character with 3 scenes. I believed that was the truth,” he said.
Niyi disclosed that he only discovered what had happened two years later when he unexpectedly met the same production assistant.
He said he had become financially successful while working on SOP and decided to visit the production team in Winning to greet them. During the visit, he and the PA sat at the same table, where the assistant eventually explained what had happened.
Recounting the PA’s admission, Niyi said, “I didn’t know you wouldn’t play the role, I told the PM that you weren’t Igbo but Yoruba, I didn’t know they would say you shouldn’t play it.”