Funke Akindele

Olufunke Ayotunde Akindele (born 24 August 1977) popularly known as Funke Akindele or Jenifa, is a Nigerian filmmaker, actress, director, producer, politician, and realtor. She starred in the sitcom I Need to Know from 1998 to 2002 and in 2009 won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Jenifa, which brought her to fame. Akindele reprised the role in the 2011 sequel The Return of Jenifa and the 2015 soft reboot television series titled Jenifa's Diary, for which she was named the Best Actress in a Comedy at the 2016 and 2017 Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards. Akindele won the same award in 2020 and 2022, making it her fifth win for the Best Actress in a Comedy category. Akindele is the most nominated actress and filmmaker at the AMVCA and holds the record for most wins for an actress with six. She is the second director to gross over a billion naira at the box office and the highest-grossing director in Nigerian box office with a total gross of over ₦4.7 billion. In 2022, she was nominated by the People's Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate, Abdul-Azeez Olajide Adediran, as the running mate for the 2023 Lagos State gubernatorial election. During the World AIDS Day commemoration in December 2024, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) appointed her as the National Goodwill Ambassador for Nigeria, a role focused on promoting HIV prevention and awareness across the country.