You can’t talk about the entertainment industry in Nigeria now without mentioning ‘Chigul.’ Known for her ability to switch between accents and for her versatility, this woman of many parts is not only a comedienne but also an actress, a singer, a TV presenter, and a video vixen.
Here are some facts about her.
1. She was born Chioma Ijeoma Omeruah on May 14, 1976, in Yaba, Lagos.
2. She is the daughter of the late Air Commodore Samson Omeruah, a former military governor of Anambra State (1985-1987), and was a three-time minister for information, youth, sports, and culture during the regimes of Generals Muhammadu Buhari, Sani Abacha, and Abdulsalami Abubakar.
3. She is the second of four children.
4. She attended Air Force secondary schools in Jos and Lagos, respectively, for her secondary education.
5. Chigul attended Abia State University (ABSU) for three months before moving to the United States at age 18 to study criminal law at Delaware State University.
6. She later changed courses after two years and studied French education at the same university for her bachelor’s degree.
7. She worked as a French teacher for three years.
8. Chigul is a polyglot and can speak five languages: English, Igbo, Hausa, French, and Spanish.
9. She moved back to Nigeria at the age of 30.
10. Chigul’s journey into acting, comedy, and stardom began in 2009/2010 when a BlackBerry voice note she recorded using her ‘Chigurl’ voice went viral after she shared it with her friends and contacts.
11. She has twelve characters in her head, but her Chigurl character is the most popular.
12. Her first hit song was in 2011, titled ‘Not Gonna Be A Waist’ .
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13. Chigul worked at ECOWAS for seven and a half years, first as a translator and later at the conference and protocol department, but resigned in 2016.
14. She has acted in several notable movies like ‘Road to Yesterday’ (2015), ‘The Wedding Party 2’ (2017), ‘Banana Island Ghost’ (2017), ‘Wives on Strike: The Revolution’ (2017), ‘Ghost and The Tout’ (2018), ‘Chief Daddy’ (2018), ‘Your Excellency’ (2019), ‘Omo Ghetto: The Saga’ (2020), ‘King of Boys: The Return of the King’ (2021) and Chief Daddy 2: Going for Broke’ (2022).
15. She gave a TEDx Talk in Euston in 2014 titled ‘Don’t Be A Waste.’
16. She featured in Falz’s ‘Karishika‘ video and MI’s ‘Monkey’ in 2015.
17. For years, she has struggled with back pain caused by a slipped disc in her spine.
18. She married as a virgin at 33 years old, but the marriage crashed after one year, without children.