17 Things To Know About Fast Rising Actress, Genoveva Umeh

Genoveva Umeh is a British-Nigerian actress who rose to prominence for her role as ‘Timileyin’ in the Netflix series, ‘Blood Sisters.

Blood Sisters primarily tells the story of Sarah, a young woman who is set to marry a physically abusive man. Despite her best friend, Kemi’s objection, she goes ahead with the wedding, which leads to a series of unfortunate events. The Netflix original Nigerian series premiered on May 5, 2022.

As she turns a year older today, here is a biography of Genoveva Umeh.

1. She was born Genoveva Kenechukwu Umeh on May 8, 1995 in Enugu state.

2. She hails from Anambra State.

3. Her father is a computer engineer, while her mother is a registered nurse. She also has a brother.

4. Genoveva attended Command Children’s School, Enugu for her primary education before proceeding to Command Day Secondary School, Enugu for her secondary education.

5. She migrated alongside her family to the UK in 2006.

6. She attended St Mary’s and St John’s CE School in London for her high school education and drama was her favourite subject.

6. She fell in love with acting and at 17, she was accepted into the Identity School of Acting, in the UK.

7. She became interested in Nollywood while pursuing a Law degree in 2014

8. She graduated with honours in LLB Law from the University of Surrey, England.

9. Genoveva was invited to audition for Ebonylife’s ‘On The Real’ but she couldn’t attend due to her studies. Thereafter, she got her first lead role in a series shot in Enugu.

10. After her graduation in 2018, she moved back to Lagos to pursue her acting career.

11. She wrote and performed a one-woman stage play, HOME, which performed at the Lagos Fringe Festival in Lagos, Nigeria, and a year later at Bloemfontein, South Africa.

12. Genoveva began her on-screen journey with a small role in ‘Love is War’, a Netflix film. She also played ‘Anita’ in “One Lagos Night” and ‘Khafilat’ in the BAFTA-nominated short film “Lizard”.

13. She was part of the first batch enrolled in the Ebonylife Creative Academy in 2021. It was during the program that her talent was noticed by Kenneth Gyang, HOD of the Directing Faculty at the time, who recommended her to the CEO of EbonyLife Media, Mo Abudu.

14. She auditioned for the character ‘Timeyin’ in two days and was eventually given the role.

15. Despite Blood Sisters being her major acting debut, Genoveva has acted in many movies and short films, which include, Blameless (2019), Love is War (2019), Lizard (2020), One Lagos Night (2021), Reflections (2021), Monitoring Spirits (2021), Focus (2021), Country Hard (2021), Super Star (2021), All Good Things (2021), ‘Breath Of Life’ (2021), A Tune Away (2022), Far From Home(2022) and A Tribe Called Judah (2023).

16. Her role in ‘A Tune Away’ earned her a ‘Best Actress In A Drama’ nomination at the 2022 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCAs).

17. Genoveva won the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ award for her role in ‘Breath of Life’ At The 2024 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCAs).