The 9jaStudio Entertainment has officially launched its Nollywood drama series, UniLife. Held on June 1, 2025, at the Magodo studio of the entertainment outfit, the unveiling attracted a host of industry practitioners, influencers, media, cast and crew, who had opportunity to witness the making of a series, which is redefining storytelling in Africa.

UniLife is a gripping series that follows the lives of Nigerian university students as they navigate the highs and lows of campus life. The moment of anagnoris arrives when a missing student’s mysterious death sends shockwaves across the campus.

In his welcome address, Executive Producer, Olatunde ‘ED’ Ayoola, said the launch of the drama series was a fulfilling amount of work.

“It’s about telling the truth of our youth with courage, creativity, and conviction. UniLife dives deep into the real life worries: peer pressure, cultism, religion, class struggles, the hustle for identity that take place on our campuses,” he remarked.

Ayoola added, “hopefully, it’s the beginning of many coming forward.”

For Ayoola the idea of movie making was not his forte. But as Macaulay described it more and more, he ended up knowing more than the UniLife series, “he shared with me bits of the script and it looked fantastic and sounded fantastic. I was quite captivated by it. But it was more so what he represented. He described to me all the 9jaStudios, all the boot camps, the workshops, and the training.”

He said: “It was all about helping people at the very beginning of their journey in their acting careers and supporting them as best as we can to help them achieve their dreams. That’s what got me about this, because I have been looking for avenues to support young Nigerians in their careers. This turned out to be that.”

9jaStudio Founder and Producer, Macaulay, said the series is more than just entertainment, “it tackles real social issues on Nigerian campuses.”

He revealed that UniLife is about hypocrisy. He said, “every character has two sides. If you watch the series, you’ll notice that every main character is struggling.”

Macaulay continued: “We want to give encouragement like the executive producer said to young adult Nigerians that maybe tomorrow will be the superstars. Our motto is – we train the actors of tomorrow today, the stars of tomorrow today and it’s not just about acting.”

According to him, the journey to create anything starts with one step. “That step is the beginning.

There are many up and down trails along the road. Today, I’m really happy that all of you have attended. But you know, a tree does not make a forest.”

It was not all rosy as he faced challenges during the writing of the movie, adding: “I’m a Nigerian and when we face challenges, we tend not to buckle. It gets to the point where you start carrying more and more load and you manage somehow to make it work and that’s something that we are able to do. But I’ll tell you this, you want challenges, traffic, NEPA, you know cantankerous drivers, you know it goes on and on. But it’s more to do with how do you overcome your obstacles? Is your cup half full or half empty?”

On how he came up with the idea of UniLife, he said, “it started with wanting to build a studio, it started with wanting to work with young people because I had worked with young people in the UK and then it grew from there.”

While thanking the cast and crew and investors for being part of this dream, he spoke on what inspired the decision to have Script Acting Boot Camp (SABC) as back up for his production.

Macaulay said, “As you can see, when I am talking, I am talking with subtext, I am bringing in different elements. Now, having gone through life myself, I have fallen down many times. That is the truth. It has not been rosy, but every time I have fallen down, because of the training that my father and mother gave me. I remember my father one day telling me, why are you crying? He said, if you don’t stop crying, get up and move on. I will give you something to cry about. That thing had a subconscious effect on me, and so whenever I have fallen down, when he is saying, look at Bode over there. He only did half of what I did. Look how far he has gone. Self-pity. And self-pity is a dangerous thing.”

According to him, talent thrives through training together without which one can’t achieve anything.

Afolabi Silver, who directed the movie, said SABC made it easier for him. “Working with young actors in Unilife, SABC made it easier for me and for everybody because we trained them, we understood them. Even casting made it even easier because I saw a little bit of everybody in the characters that they played.”

On where he finds the passion to keep going, Silver said, “Passion is the key element to any ambition and having the actors together, the crew together, and having a compassionate and loving and caring person, like Mr. Macaulay, if you were around during the production, you would see how much he cared.”