Patience Ozokwor Biography: Age, Early Life, Education, Relationship, Career, Awards, Brand Endorsements, Controversy, Net Worth

Patience Ozokwor is one of Nollywood’s biggest and brightest stars. The debut of Nollywood on our screens also introduced Patience’s impeccable talent for acting.

Many have come to hate her because of her characters in most of the movies she’s starred in. Popularly know as Mama G (G for General), Patience is quite a lovable person in real life and is quite generous.

Apart from her career as an actress she’s also a singer and a fashion designer.

An award-winning actress, Patience Ozokwor has an illustrious career.

This is her biography.

Patience was born on September 14 in 1958. She is 61 years old.

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Born in Ngwo in Enugu State, Patience Ozokwor has been interested in acting since her primary school days.

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With her school days spent at Abimbola Gibson Memorial School, Patience acted in all the school plays she could. She left an impression on her schoolmates and teachers with her interpretation of the William Shakespeare play, Hamlet, in the lead role.

Once she matriculated from high school, she enrolled at the Institute of Management and Technology, where she successfully completed and graduated with a degree in fine and applied arts.

It was also during her university years where she met a friend, a companion – someone she fell hopelessly in love with and thought she would marry.

But the love story ended as quickly as it started.

When she was 19 years old, Patience married a suitor, hand picked by her mother.

Not her first choice, Patience and her mom had a lot of disagreements about this pending marriage, but she also realised that’s how things were.

Because of her deep Christian beliefs and values, Patience knew divorce wasn’t an option. They nevertheless had a happy marriage

Their marriage was blessed with three children: two sons and one daughter.

Patience also adopted five more children.

Patience and her husband were blessed in their more than 20 years marriage, which ended in 2000, with the passing of her husband after a long illness.

Through her children, Patience has been blessed with 16 grandchildren, and she’s as proud of her grandchildren as she is of her children.

Patience never got to remarry after the death of her husband.

After her schooling, Patience entered the teaching profession.

After a while, she entered broadcasting where she worked as a radio presenter and a news reader. Patience then acted in her first radio drama in 1998.

This turned her into one of Nollywood’s most recognisable voices.

Patience Ozokwor acted in the soap opera Someone Cares, before being cast in movies. Her second movie Authority, was released in 1999, which catapulted her fame.

Throughout her years of acting in Nollywood, Mama G has more than 100 movie and TV credits to her name.

Some of these include Blood Sister, 2 Rats, Turning Point and Heart of a Slave.

Throughout her career, Patience Ozokwor has portrayed an onscreen mother to many of Nollywood’s A-listeres, including Van Vicker, Ini Edo, Ramsey Nouah and Rita Dominic.

In between all of the acting, Patience Ozokwor has also released gospel albums – yes, she’s a prolific singer.

Some of her biggest and most impactful tracks include Ihe Neme N’uwa, Iyo Ngwo Ngwo, Adaeze, Make We Jolly and National Moi Moi.

She’s won several awards for her acting, including getting the recognition from the Ghana Movie Awards, the Africa Movie Awards and the Independent Newspapers Limited Awards.

Not satisfied with only acting, Patience Ozokwor made headlines in 2015 when she opened her own plaza Coal City Garden Enugu.

And she received support from her Nollywood peers who shared messages of congratulations and also attended the opening to great fanfare.

One of Patience Ozokwor’s greatest achievements was in 2014, when the Nigerian President Jonathan Goodluck honoured Patience, along with 99 other Nigerians, to celebrate the unification of the northern and southern protectorates.

Patience Ozokwor’s star power is unrivaled and Nigerians are so in awe of her talent and her life that they affectionately called her Mama G (yes, after her most famous character, one of Nollywood’s most devious characters in the 2002 movie Old School.

Her career speaks for itself and the respect the industry has for her is tremendous.

Although Patience Ozokwor’s career is solidified in Nollywood, she has gone international.

In 2019, the popular streaming site Netflix announced they were adding the Nigerian movie Chief Daddy to its line-up. The movie features an all-star Nollywood cast, including Patience Ozokwor, Funke Akindele, Nkem Owoh and Kate Henshaw.

In 2019 she appeared on the hit reality TV show Big Brother Naija. She was giving the Housemates advice on how to deal with fame once their time on the show ends, Mama G told them it’s important to stay true to who they are, and what they believe in.

In a segment called Dinner with the Stars, Mama G joined other Nigerian personalities like Kemi Akindoju, Osas Ighadoro and Chinese Ikedieze on the show, which is broadcast across Africa.

Fast forward to 2020, it seems Patience has not lost her flare in the movie industry as she has another project coming up, titled ‘Woman King’.

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Over the years, Patience has won a number of awards and been nominated quite a few times.Here’s a list of what she’s won;

2012 – Best Supporting Actress at the 10th Africa Movie Academy Awards
2013 – Best Supporting Actress at the 10th Africa Movie Academy Awards
2014 – Honoured by the government to celebrate the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates

During her career, Patience has been brand ambassador for Gracia Planta Plantain Flour alongside fellow Nigerian actress Mercy Johnson.

She’s also given her star power as brand ambassador for Globacom and IrokoTV

With her illustrious career, Patience has been applauded and her value recognised.

Patience Ozokwor was once at loggerheads with actress, Mercy Johnson during a shooting. Apparently, it seems Patience was not taking her acting role seriously and Mercy saw it as an opportunity to give the thespian some correction.However, Patience did not take kind to that and in response she shouted “after all, you’re my junior” .

Patience has also expressed at how there are actors who are getting away with things they should not be getting away with such as rape.

Patience Ozokwor, told Sunday Scoop that actors found guilty of such conduct should be banned from the industry. She said,

“Yes (they should be banned) because they cannot represent us as an industry. The guilds in the industry have disciplinary committees and they won’t allow such people to stay. There is a standard punishment that is to be meted out to anyone found guilty of such act.

“It is heartbreaking whenever I hear that things like that happen in the entertainment industry because they (entertainers) have access to whatever they want. There is no girl they desire and approach that would not follow them, even when they (girls) know that some of them are married. Forcing a girl into (the act) is just stupid. My heart is breaking as you are telling me that it happens in the industry because I don’t go on social media anymore.”

Patience raised some valid points.

With all of her business ventures, singing and acting, Patience is always on annual lists of the wealthiest stars in Nigeria.

Her net worth is estimated at $500 000.

Her greatness and humility is further entrenched in how her personal life isn’t impacted by her wealth and fame.

Patience still lives in a village in Enugu state, surrounded by her family and loved-ones.

This respected Nigerian heavyweight still has so much to offer the industry and teach those wanting to be part of it and make a positive contribution to Nigeria’s entertainment industry.