Emmanuel Ifeanyi Ikubese (born 12 August 1991) is a Nigerian model and actor who won the SilverBird male Pageant for '' Mr. Nigeria'' in 2014. In 2015, he won the ''Peace Personality of the Year'' at the Peace Achievers Awards and in 2016 won the ''City People Movie Award for Most Promising Actor of the Year (English)'' at the

City People Entertainment Awards City People Entertainment Awards are an annual accolade presented by '' City People Magazine'' to honour Nigerian and Ghanaian entertainers. The first edition was held in Abeokuta, Ogun State on June 14, 2009. The event was hosted by Governor G ...

. Ikubese, in 2017 was appointed

United Nations Millennium Development Goals In the United Nations, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight international development goals for the year 2015 created following the Millennium Summit, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. These w ...

Ambassador.

Early life and education

Ikubese is from

Delta state Delta is a States of Nigeria, state in the South South (Nigeria), South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Named after the Niger Delta—a large part of which is in the state—the state was formed from the former Bendel State, on 27 August 1 ...

in Nigeria, a geographical area occupied by the minority tribes in Nigeria as well as the

Igbo people The Igbo people ( , ; also spelled Ibo" and historically also ''Iboe'', ''Ebo'', ''Eboe'', / / ''Eboans'', ''Heebo''; natively ) are an ethnic group found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea. Their primary origin is fo ...

. Ikubuese obtained his ''First School Leaving Certificate'' and '' West African Senior School Certificate'' from local learning institutions within Delta state. In bid to obtain a university degree, he migrated to

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

where he applied to

United States International University Africa United States International University-Africa, also known as USIU-Africa, is a private university in Kenya. The university is accredited by the Commission for Higher Education (CUE) in Kenya and by the Western Association of Schools and College ...

Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...

to study International Relations and eventually got accepted and obtained a B.Sc. degree upon completion of his course duration.

Career

Ikubese began his career as a professional model in his university’s campus and eventually was crowned Mr. Nigeria as well finishing as first Runner-up at the Mr. World male pageant. Ikubuese after his successful run as a model, ventured into the Nigerian movie industry which is known most commonly as

Nollywood Nollywood, a portmanteau of Nigeria and Hollywood, is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term goes back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history ...

and gained significant recognition after he secured a role in the

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

Tv series titled Shuga where he played the role of a character named Femi. Ikubese made his directorial debut in 2019 with a Tv series titled ''Kyaddala'' which is a Ugandan word meaning “its real” when translated to the English language.

Awards

Ikubese won the ''City People Movie Award for Most Promising Actor of the Year (English)'' at the

. Ikubese won the ''Peace Personality of the Year'' at the Peace Achievers Awards.

Personal life

In 2019, Ikubese got engaged to Nigerian beautician Anita Adetoye. Ikubese in an interview with

The Punch ''The Punch'' is a Nigerian daily newspaper founded on August 8, 1970. Punch Nigeria Limited is registered under the Companies Act of 1968 to publish newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. The newspaper's aim is said to be to "inform, edu ...

media press listed playing basketball, playing soccer and cooking as his hobbies.

Selected filmography and Tv series

*'' Shuga (2012-2019) as Femi'' *''Fifty (2015) as Sammy'' *'' Ojukokoro (2016) as Accountant'' *''Run (2017)'' *''My Flatmates (2017-) as Sammy *''Lagos Landing (2018) as Emeka'' *''Shagayas and Clarks (2018 TV Series) as Lanre Shagayas'' *''Kyaddala (2019 TV Series) as Jeff'' *''Deeds (2020)'' *''Marrying a Campbell (2021) as Efosa Uwaifo'' *'' A Simple Lie (2021 film) as Azeem'' *''Meeting Funmi's Parents (2024) as Jimoh''

References

External links

* Living people 21st-century Nigerian male actors Igbo male actors United States International University alumni 1991 births Mr Nigeria winners Male actors from Delta State Nigerian male film actors Nigerian male television actors Actors from Delta State Nigerian male models Nigerian beauty pageant contestants Nigerian media personalities Nigerian film directors Nigerian television actors {{Nigeria-actor-stub