Actress and writer from the deprived South-East London went from Camberwell to Nollywood and now to Hollywood.

Chidinma Ifunanyachi is an actress and writer that grew up in South-East London, Camberwell to be precise. She is making a name for herself in the entertainment industry. The actress, who grew up in a single parent household where she had to learn to be independent from an early age, had a desire to teach in schools. She always had a love for education and saw how education helped her have financial freedom. However, as the years went by, she grew inquisitive about the arts and wanted to pursue a career in acting.

With only 4 years of acting experience, she has already been in 10 films, 2 web series, and has been cast in other filming projects for 2025. Some would say that Chidinma is on the right path. She created her debut short film, Violated, from meeting up with female friends in Nigeria who had shared their experience with rape in their marriages. Chidinma then started asking more women about their experiences with this topic and found it was common amongst many women.

The actress then wanted to write a script around this topic and spread awareness to women, letting them know this isn’t right, even though many of the women felt as though this was how most marriages are. Chidinma then decided that she wanted to create impactful films addressing social injustice, especially within different communities like Nigeria. Violated went viral on YouTube, influencing young audiences, educational institutions, and raising awareness on sexual consent.

As a leading actress, Chidinma is focused on making impactful films that look at what is happening around the world and is having meetings around the world about future projects in Los Angeles, London and Nigeria. She wants to drive positive change through her commitment as an actress and writer. She has been cast in a new feature film, Boy Soul Man Heart, set to shoot in 2025. The film tells a gripping story about a young Black man that was abused. We see how he dealt with the trauma over a period.

Chidinma was inspired by Uzo Aduba from the hit series Orange is the New Black who played ‘Crazy Eyes’. Chidinma listened to Uzo’s Ted Talk in 2017 where she discussed her name. Chidinma has said, “Watching Uzo give a Ted Talk about the importance of your name, and how the pronunciation of your name becomes important, once you become important, was life-changing for me. Being Nigerian, our names can sometimes be sentences, usually in reverence to God.”

A quote from the actress:

“My mum’s side of the family comes from the Igbo tribe. My Igbo name is Chidinma, which means God is good, but on my birth certificate and all my legal documentation, my first name is Cheryl. Don’t get me wrong, I love my legal name, but it does not ring true of my ancestry. I understand that my parents wanted to reduce the risk of bullying and racism, or me being treated differently due to having an African name. That’s how I got Cheryl as a first name. I’m so proud of my heritage. Once I decided I was going to be an actress, I knew it was my duty to make sure people know my origin. It’s important that everyone knows that I am a Nigerian. So, difficult to pronounce or not, there will come a point where people will have no option but to pronounce my name properly, because they will not be able to escape seeing my name everywhere.”

Chidinma is on social media:

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=chidinma%20ifunanyachi

LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/chidinma-ifunanyachi-979a44241/

TIKTOK https://www.tiktok.com/@chidinma_ifunanyachi

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/chidinmaifunanyachi/?hl=en