Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde Reveals How Ruth Kadiri Inspired Her to Join YouTube Filmmaking

Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has revealed that Ruth Kadiri inspired her to explore YouTube as a new way to share stories.

She credited Kadiri’s encouragement for helping her embrace digital filmmaking.

Nollywood icon Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has shared how fellow actress and filmmaker Ruth Kadiri inspired her to embrace YouTube as a new platform for storytelling.

Speaking on the Nollywood on Radio podcast, Omotola revealed that her YouTube journey began after a conversation with Kadiri in 2023 while she was on vacation.

“I came on vacation in 2023, and Ruth called me. She said, ‘Mama, do you know what’s going on? There’s a whole revolution with YouTube.’ She showed me numbers and everything,” Omotola recounted.

The 47-year-old actress said Kadiri described YouTube as a “phenomenal” space that gives filmmakers total control over their work. “She told me, ‘You can do what you want on YouTube, but I think you should get in on this. You would do very well.’ She didn’t let me rest,” Omotola added.

Eventually, she decided to give it a try. “That girl gave me no peace of mind. So I called my producer and said, ‘Let’s just try something.’ We shot the first project in four days and used the fifth day for cleanup. I surprised myself. I was thankful to her for giving me the courage to try.”

Following the success of her debut YouTube project, Omotola went on to produce “Mother’s Love”, a feature film that was later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

“Mother’s Love came because I was under pressure. I just told my producer, ‘What if we did a feature film?’ and that was it. We started planning immediately and shot it in less than two weeks,” she said, admitting that she initially hesitated to release it out of fear of criticism.