Mark Angel (born 27 May 1991) is a

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

comedian, scriptwriter and YouTuber. He is best known for the Mark Angel Comedy series of

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" because they ar ...

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, often featuring child

comedian A comedian (feminine comedienne) or comic is a person who seeks to entertainment, entertain an audience by making them laughter, laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly (as in slapstick), or employing prop c ...

s such as his cousin, Emmanuella Samuel (age ), his niece, and her cousin "Aunty" Success Madubuike (age 16). Angel's YouTube channel was the first African comedy (Afrocomedy) channel to reach one million subscribers. Mark Angel has a wife who also acts within his productions with his fellow actors, which are Mr. Azu, Baze10, Ebere, The Law, Mimi, Kingsley Brown.

Early and personal life

Angel was born in 1991 in

Port Harcourt Port Harcourt (Pidgin: ''Po-ta-kot or Pi-ta-kwa)'' is the capital and largest city of Rivers State in Nigeria. It is the fifth most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, Kano, Ibadan and Benin. It lies along the Bonny River and is locate ...

Rivers State Rivers is a states of Nigeria, state in the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria (Old Eastern Region). Formed on 27 May 1967, when it was split from the former Eastern Region, Nigeria, Eastern Region, Rivers State borders include Imo State, Im ...

. His hails from

Imo State Imo () is a States of Nigeria, state in the South East (Nigeria), South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered to the north by Anambra State, Rivers State to the west and south, and Abia State to the east. It takes its name from the Imo R ...

. He attended

Obafemi Awolowo University Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is a federal university in Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The university was founded in 1961 and classes commenced in October 1962 as the University of Ife by the regional government of Western Nigeria, which w ...

to study medicine but left for family reasons. After college, he studied cinematography in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and spent time in Nigeria gaining experience in

cinematography Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...

and

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communi ...

but could not find stable paying work in

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 ...

. He began

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is film production, produced outside the Major film studios, major film studio system in addition to being produced and distributed by independ ...

making in 2013 under his studio, Mechanic Pictures.

Mark Angel Comedy

Angel is best known for Mark Angel Comedy, a series of YouTube comedy shorts that feature a number of people from Angel's family and neighborhood in Port Harcourt. Many of the shorts involve children, primarily Emmanuella and Success. Angel's first well known short is "Oga Landlord," wherein a man late on rent (Angel) is trying to hide from his landlord (Daddy Humble) and tries in vain to have a child (Emmanuella) cover for him (e.g. "My uncle is not around. He just told me."). Emmanuella is Angel's longest-appearing actress. She has won comedy awards in Nigeria and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

for her work with Angel, and is Africa's youngest YouTube award winner. She started film work in school as part of a class video project prior to being chosen by Angel for his stable of actors. Videos starring her often reach up to a million views in the first week after posting. Mark Angel Comedy received a plaque from YouTube for having reached one million subscriptions in 2017. It was the first Nigerian-based YouTube channel to reach that threshold. In 2018 it was announced that Samuel would be attached to an upcoming

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

feature film. On 2 April 2020, during the

COVID-19 lockdowns During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Non-pharmaceutical intervention (epidemiology), non-pharmaceutical interventions, particularly lockdowns (encompassing stay-at-home orders, curfews, quarantines, and similar socie ...

, Emmanuella, Success, and Regina Daniels were featured in a skit by Ofego titled "

Lockdown A lockdown () is a restriction policy for people, community or a country to stay where they are, usually due to specific risks that could possibly harm the people if they move and interact freely. The term is used for a prison protocol that us ...

" on his YouTube channel, using archive footage.

1xBet ambassador

In the summer of 2021, Mark Angel signed a contract with

1xBet 1xBet is an online gambling company licensed by Curaçao eGaming License. It was founded in 2007, is based in Cyprus, and licensed in Curacao. The organisation operates a franchise business model. Following revelations into the company's finan ...

, an online gambling company popular in Nigeria.

Film style

Mark Angel works mostly with multiple camera formats and close camera angles. Filming sometimes includes

shaky camera Shaky camera,Jonas Mekas, Mekas, Jonas. "A Note on the Shaky Camera." ''Film Culture'', issues 24-27, 1962. shaky cam, jerky camera, queasy cam, run-and-gun or free camera is a cinematographic technique where Image stabilization, stable-image tech ...

techniques to give them a natural and down-to-earth feel, something Angel calls "freestyle comedy." Angel primarily films within his family's lower-class neighborhood in Port Harcourt, as a means to portray the environment he grew up in and relate to other common people in Nigeria.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Angel, Mark 1991 births Living people Nigerian film producers Nigerian male comedians People from Port Harcourt People from Rivers State Comedy YouTubers Nigerian YouTubers Nigerian media personalities Nigerian screenwriters Igbo comedians Igbo people Nigerian comedians