Kunle Afolayan (born 30 September 1975) is a Nigerian actor, producer and director. He is widely credited for elevating the quality of Nollywood movies through larger budgets, shooting on 35mm, releasing in cinemas, and improving cliché Nollywood storylines. After starting his film career as an actor in the 1999 political drama
Saworoide, Afolayan made his directorial debut in 2006 with
Irapada, a Nigerian supernatural thriller, which won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Film in an African Language. His follow-on directing credits include The Figurine,
Phone Swap,
October 1, and
Citation.
October 1 was the winner of 16 major African movie awards in 2015 and the second highest grossing Nigerian film at the time of its release, a feat Afolayan was to repeat two years later with
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