Yorubas in the Media/Entertainment

Lola Adesioye





Lola Adesioye is a writer, commentator, broadcaster and singer/songwriter born in London, England, to Nigerian parents. Adesioye attended Rosemead Preparatory School and James Allen's Girls' School, prestigious private schools in Dulwich, South East London. She excelled academically and musically at both, becoming Head Girl at the former and a Music Scholar and Head Girl at James Allen's Girls' School. At James Allen's Girls' School, Adesioye participated in the European Youth Parliament and competed on the debating team.

Adesioye studied Modern and Medieval Languages (Italian and Spanish) at Robinson College, Cambridge, before changing to Social & Political Science. She graduated in 2003, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 2007, Adesioye was awarded an honorary master's degree by the university.

At Cambridge University, Adesioye was politically active within her college and the Cambridge University Students' Union, holding elected office for two years as Anti-Racism and Ethnic Minorities Officer respectively. She was involved in the creation of Cambridge University's Little Black Book, an award-winning book for students of colour that was used by the UK's Department for Education and Employment as part of its race relations initiative at the time.

In 2004, she appeared in a primetime BBC documentary series Black Ambition, which followed the lives of eight black Cambridge students in their final year.

Adesioye is an international writer whose commentary and analysis on UK, US and African society, politics and culture has been published in the New Statesman, The Guardian, The Economist, BBC, CNN, The Huffington Post, TIME magazine, The Washington Post′s TheRoot.com, Forbes Africa, and EbonyJet.[8] She regularly appears as a talking head on TV and radio including CNN,[9] MSNBC, the BBC, Channel 4 and BET.

Adesioye was one of the founding editors (Deputy Editor) of NBC's African-American news site TheGrio.com and was a Contributing Editor for AOL Black Voices before it became Huffington Post Black.

She has been described as one of "11 black commentators you should be following" and has been named one of Nigeria's top wordsmiths.

Adesioye's grandfather, Ebun Adesioye, was one of the pioneers of journalism and PR in Nigeria.

Dapo Torimiro




Dapo Torimiro is a multi-platinum songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, he has worked in the music industry in the US for several years writing and producing music for artists' album projects, touring with numerous artists, as well as scoring various television and film projects. He is based in Los Angeles, CA.

Dapo's big break was placing the song "Quickly" (co-written with Frank Ocean and the award-winning production duo Midi Mafia (50 Cent, Fantasia)) on nine-time Grammy winner John Legend's third studio album, Evolver, which was released in Fall of 2008. Featuring multi-platinum-selling artist Brandy, "Quickly" received early industry buzz as not only an inspired, sleek duet featuring R&B/pop music's leading artists, but also as one of the album's stand-out gems. Dapo, Frank Ocean and Midi Mafia co-wrote (and Dapo/Midi Mafia produced) approximately 20+ songs, some of which were released by Frank as part of his "Lonny Breaux Collection" which includes a demo version of Justin Bieber's "Bigger" (My World) as well as "Bedtime Stories", "Done", "Lights", "Quickly" (Frank's demo version), "Read The Stars", "Standing Still", and "When I'm Done".

Later in the Fall of 2008, Dapo also enjoyed credit for other records, including "Running" (co-written with James Fauntleroy and Midi Mafia) on David Archuleta's self-titled debut album (11 November 2008) – his first since becoming runner-up on American Idol in June 2008—and "Torn Down" (also co-written with James Fauntleroy and Midi Mafia) from Brandy's highly anticipated album, Human (9 December 2008), which she describes as her most personal album to date. In the Spring of 2009, Dapo received songwriter and producer credit for the tracks "Know Better", "Apart From Me", and "This Step Alone" on Fight for Love, the second album by American Idol Season 5 finalist Elliott Yamin, which was released on 5 May 2009. He also received credit for "Forever in You", which was included on the album as an iTunes and Japan bonus track.

Dapo is a Yamaha-endorsed artist. Dapo worked with two-time Grammy-winning producer Jeffrey Weber to record a song for Senator Barack Obama's presidential campaign called "Change".

Dapo worked with American Idol winner and Grammy-nominated artist Jordin Sparks on her second album Battlefield on the track titled "No Parade". Dapo wrote and produced the track "No Parade" along with Oscar-nominated songwriting duo Scott Cutler and Anne Preven. "Listen", is sung by Beyoncé Knowles in the 2006 film Dreamgirls. Early reviews of the album have generally been positive with most critics highlighting individual tracks such as "No Parade", which is described as 'breaking your heart even before she gets to the bruising chorus.'.
Dapo was announced as one of the songwriters for the hit Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam along with Kara DioGuardi and others. (Dapo co-wrote, produced and mixed "Fire" performed by Matthew "Mdot" Finley.)

On 30 October 2009, Atlantic Records announced that Dapo will be one of the producers personally chosen by Grammy Award-winning R&B singer Toni Braxton to work on her highly anticipated label debut album (Pulse) to be released 2 February 2010.

Dapo co-wrote and produced the track "Bigger" (with co-writers Frank Ocean and Midi Mafia) on Canadian singer Justin Bieber's first part of his two-part debut studio album, My World, which was released on 17 November 2009, via Island Records. Ashante Infantry of Toronto Star called "Bigger" one of the best tracks on the album.[6] On the week ending 5 December 2009, due to digital sales after the release of My World, "Bigger" debuted on the US Billboard Hot 100 and the Canadian Hot 100. The song debuted at number forty-nine on the Hot Digital Songs chart in the US, and therefore consecutively appeared at number ninety-four on the Hot 100.

The second part of the album, My World 2.0, on which Dapo co-wrote and produced the track "Overboard" (a duet featuring Jessica Jarrell), was released on 23 March 2010 and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200.[8] In less than one month of release, the first part of the album was certified Gold in the United States by the RIAA, and in less than two months (8 January 2010), it was certified Platinum in the United States, by the RIAA[9] selling over one million copies.

Channeling his jazz roots, Dapo produced and recorded songs with Tony Award-winning singer/actress, Anika Noni Rose for Disney's album, The Princess and The Frog: Tiana and Her Princess Friends. The album is inspired by the 2009 Disney animated film The Princess and the Frog and was released on 24 November 2009. The album is the follow-up release in the successful Disney 'And Friends' musical series and features the song "Down in New Orleans" performed by Anika Noni Rose as written by Academy Award-winning composer Randy Newman and produced by Dapo Torimiro. In another Princess and the Frog-inspired album, Bayou Boogie (Release date 3/16/10), Dapo wrote and produced two songs: "Everyday Princess" and "Sing Away Your Blues", both performed by Anika Noni Rose (as Princess Tiana).

Dapo was a featured performer on stage with Andrea Bocelli and David Foster on the PBS Great Performances special, "Andrea Bocelli & David Foster: My Christmas." The special debuted on Thanksgiving night 2009 with additional broadcasts through the month of December.
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John Adeleye

John Adeleye (born 1980) is a British singer from West London, who first became known in the music industry under his stage name J'Nay. As a solo artist, he won a Music of Black Origin Awards (MOBO) for Unsung Artist of the Year[2] for his song "Soul Glo". He released his solo EP Merry Go Round in 2008.

In 2010, Adeleye was working as a care worker prior to taking part in the seventh series of The X Factor and was one of the 16 finalists for the live shows starting 9 October 2010. He was eliminated on 24 October 2010 after week 3 of the live shows, finishing in twelfth place.

Edun Adetomiwa

Adetomiwa Edun is a British, Nigerian and Ghanaian actor best known for his role as Sir Elyan in the television show Merlin.

Edun was born in Lagos, Nigeria, to a Nigerian father and a half-Ghanaian, half-English mother. Edun moved to the United Kingdom at the age of 11. He attended Eton College from the age of 13, before reading Classics at Christ's College, Cambridge (University of Cambridge). In his final year at Christ's College, he won the dissertation prize for his thesis on Homer's Odyssey.[3] His father, a financier, encouraged Edun to enter banking as a career, and he interned with Citigroup. He considered studying for a Master of Philosophy degree, but decided to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) instead.

In 2000, Edun appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as the character Clifford in the show Kassandra by Ivo Stourton. Edun attended RADA, appearing in several productions and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting in 2008. Following his graduation from RADA, he played small parts in productions at the Almeida Theatre and the Liverpool Playhouse. He also played Macbeth in a production of the eponymous play by the National Theatre, earning praise for being "charismatic" and a "fine verse speaker". In 2009, Edun became only the second black actor to play Romeo at the Globe Theatre when he was cast in Dominic Dromgoole's production of Romeo and Juliet. He also appeared in Slaves, a play by Rex Obano.

Edun has also appeared in several television shows. In 2009, he appeared in an episode of The Fixer, before a role in Law & Order: UK as a soldier returning from the war in Afghanistan. During series three of Merlin, Edun appeared as Elyan in three episodes, and was upgraded to a recurring character in series four. Elyan was killed off during the fifth and final series of Merlin in 2012. In 2011, he appeared in two episodes of The Hour as the character Sey, and reprised the role for three episodes in 2012.

Biyi Bandele


Biyi Bandele (born Biyi Bandele-Thomas; 13 October 1967) is a Nigerian novelist, playwright and filmmaker. Bandele is regarded as one of the most versatile and prolific of the UK-based Nigerian writers, having turned his hand to theatre, journalism, television, film and radio, as well as the fiction with which he made his name. He lives in London, where he moved in 1990.

Bandele was born to Yoruba parents in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Nigeria in 1967. His father Solomon Bamidele Thomas was a veteran of the Burma Campaign in World War 2, while Nigeria was still part of the British Empire. Bandele spent the first 18 years of his life in the northern part of the country being most at home in the Hausa cultural tradition. Described as a precocious child, Bandele had early ambitions to be a writer and when he was 14 years old won a short-story competition. Later on, he moved to Lagos, then in 1987 studied drama at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He won the International Student Playscript competition of 1989 with an unpublished play, Rain, before claiming the 1990 British Council Lagos Award for an unpublished collection of poems. When that year, aged 22, he went to London, invited to a theatre festival, he had with him the manuscripts of two novels he had written. Soon after he arrived in the UK he had found a publisher and been given a commission by the Royal Court Theatre

Awards
1989 – International Student Playscript Competition – Rain
1994 – London New Play Festival – Two Horsemen
1995 – Wingate Scholarship Award
1998 – Peggy Ramsay Award
2000 – EMMA (BT Ethnic and Multicultural Media Award) for Best Play – Oroonoko

Her Highness, he is hot