For Nigerian actress, filmmaker and playwright Mimi Chaka, success is no longer simply about being seen on screen. It is increasingly about telling stories that challenge stereotypes, creating spaces for honest conversations and helping people navigate the complexities of life.

Since her breakout role as Tumini in REDTV’s The Men’s Club in 2020, Chaka has steadily carved a distinctive path through Nollywood, deliberately resisting the limitations of being placed in a single category.

Looking back at the role that brought her wider recognition, Chaka said its success came at a time when she was uncertain about where her acting career was headed.

“It was surreal because I thought nothing would come out of it,” she said, recalling the unsuccessful auditions that preceded The Men’s Club. “When it took off, it was always slightly amusing to me, but it taught me to always stay prepared because you just never know which of your efforts may work out.”

The experience, she said, also forced her to confront the reality of building a career in an increasingly competitive industry.

“During that period, it felt like I had a lot of catching up to do in the industry, navigating my career as an actor and everything. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

Since then, Chaka has moved deliberately across characters and genres, appearing as Queen Mofe in Riona, Abigail in Inkblot Productions and FilmOne’s The Perfect Arrangement, Telani Ivy-Baker in Showmax’s Princess on a Hill and the Teacher’s Daughter in Kemi Adetiba’s highly acclaimed Netflix crime thriller, To Kill a Monkey (TKAM).

For Chaka, the journey has been as much about breaking away from expectations as it has been about securing roles.

After The Men’s Club, she found herself repeatedly being offered variations of the “girl next door” character.

“I was so bored, and I had to stand on the fact that I wanted to show range, not exactly just work for the sake of working,” she said.

Her approach has since become more intentional. “I try to do things I haven’t done before, and characters that I can add another dimension to,” she explained. “I don’t like the idea of being in a forever box.”

Her transformation has also extended to her physical appearance, with Chaka deliberately changing her look to challenge how casting directors perceive her.

But acting represents only one part of the creative world she is building.

Chaka is also a playwright, using theatre to explore grief, identity, healing, self-awareness, love and personal transformation. For her, the stage offers something film sometimes cannot: greater creative control and the opportunity to sit with difficult emotions for longer.

“Creative control and expression are my biggest inspirations,” she said.

Her relationship with grief has become particularly influential in her creative work. After experiencing the pain of caring for a loved one through terminal illness, Chaka said the experience fundamentally changed her understanding of vulnerability, health and emotional resilience.

“The best way I can explain it is that it will break your spirit anew!” she said.

Yet, from that painful experience emerged a more deliberate approach to self-care and storytelling.

“Even as powerless as I felt in that moment, it created a proactive process of taking care of myself that I never had before,” she said.

Chaka has now channelled that experience into The Things We Kept, a play about grief scheduled for October.

The project, she said, has been particularly vulnerable because of its connection to personal experience.

“It has been a deeply vulnerable experience, from writing to casting. Because it draws from a personal experience, the emotional and creative stakes feel that much higher.”

Her growing interest in wellness has also produced Moments in the Sun, a creative wellness and community platform that brings together film, art, music, food and conversations.

The platform is built around the idea that wellness does not have to be presented as a lecture or a warning, particularly to young people.

According to her, Nigeria’s vibrant social culture can sometimes encourage young people to believe that youth and good health are permanent.

“We have a ‘fun culture’. Because we have a very large young population, it seems like we can party forever, but we can’t,” she said.

“Youth can give you the illusion of ‘live forever, die another day,’ and it seems very believable but isn’t sustainable.”

For her, Moments in the Sun is therefore less about preaching and more about creating a community where people can learn, connect and reflect without shame.

“We aren’t here to preach,” she said. “I believe a lot of young people right now will live completely different lives from their parents, so it’s important to understand that there is a need to create a community to help navigate that process together.”

Through salons, screenings and meet-ups, the platform seeks to combine entertainment with education and meaningful conversations around different aspects of life.

“I believe that a space where people can creatively understand their beautiful existence without shame is essential, especially in the times that we are living in. And this is what ‘Moments in the Sun’ is all about,” she enthused.

Chaka’s advocacy has also extended to public conversations around health and wellbeing, including her participation at the PCOS Awareness Conference.

Her philosophy is to make difficult subjects accessible rather than relying on fear.

“I don’t believe in preaching or fear-mongering people into understanding,” she said. “It’s very fun and light, but I believe most young people have been scared straight and are still confused, stuck, and ashamed.”

Her approach to commercial partnerships reflects the same philosophy. Having worked with brands including Lancôme and Lakowe Lakes Golf & Country Estate, Chaka said shared values are critical when deciding what to associate with her platform.

“Anyone can get on their platform and sell you a product, but I believe that because of my personal life experiences, I’m a lot more sensitive to what I attach myself to and the trust I build with my fans as I use my platform,” she said.

Meanwhile, she believes Nollywood itself is undergoing a significant creative evolution.

Having worked across Nollywood, Showmax and Netflix productions, she has witnessed a shift away from what she describes as more gimmicky and stereotypical storytelling towards narratives with greater emotional and social complexity.

“I believe there has been progress and a lot of honesty,” she said.

Reflecting on a recent short-film screening, she said she was encouraged by the “raw storytelling” and subject matter.

“When I first started my career, there were a lot of gimmicky stories and stereotypical shows, but Nigerian filmmakers are much more complex than those two-dimensional stories, and I believe we will see more of those complexities with the proper funding for the industry.”

Chaka is determined to contribute to that evolution herself, through film, documentaries and theatre.

She revealed that she has a film scheduled to be showcased at an international film festival in the coming months, an opportunity she is particularly excited about because of the depth of its story. “I’m really looking forward to audiences really feeling the depth of that story,” she said.

Managing acting, filmmaking, writing, entrepreneurship and wellness advocacy, however, requires discipline. Chaka does not subscribe to the idea that everything must happen simultaneously.

“It’s a process, and I don’t believe you can do and have it all at the same time,” she said.

Instead, she plans her goals across different periods of the year, allowing herself to focus on one area without constantly worrying about what she may be missing elsewhere.

“And patience is essential, you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can’t predict the weather,” she said.

For Chaka, the next chapter is therefore less about chasing visibility and more about building community and creating work with lasting emotional resonance.

In October, The Things We Kept will bring her exploration of grief to the stage, while a film screening is planned for November.

At the centre of both projects remains the philosophy behind Moments in the Sun: to create spaces where people can connect, be entertained and learn.

From Tumini in The Men’s Club to the complex characters that have followed, and from the screen to theatre and wellness, Chaka’s career is increasingly defined by a refusal to remain still.

Her journey reflects a broader belief that creativity and wellbeing can exist in the same space and that personal growth, like storytelling itself, is rarely linear.

For Chaka, the goal is not simply to build a successful career, but to use every platform available to her to encourage deeper conversations about what it means to live, heal, create and connect.