When Nollywood is mentioned, the stories and sheer volume of films often dominate the conversation. But beneath the industry’s speed and spectacle lies its best treasure: performances that etch themselves into memory.
From Richard Mofe-Damijo’s embodiment of anger and betrayal in Oloibiri, to Nkem Owoh’s layered comedy in Osuofia in London, to Saint Obi’s commanding presence in State of Emergency, these roles show the full range of Nollywood’s talent.
This list spotlights moments where skill, charisma, and storytelling blend so perfectly that the performance becomes as large as the film itself.
Here are the 20 best performances by an actor in a Nollywood movie, ranked.
20. Saint Obi in State of Emergency (2004)
Running time: 3h 26m
Director: Teco Benson
Genre: Action, Crime
Saint Obi stars as Detective Smith, a fearless lawman guided by an unshakable moral compass. He’s pitted against Omega 12, a militant group of ex-soldiers who turn to terrorism and hostage-taking to destabilise the nation.
As chaos escalates, Detective Smith becomes the linchpin of law enforcement’s response, fearlessly charging into danger when others hesitate.
What makes Obi’s performance memorable is not just the physical demands of the role, but the way he balances intensity with charisma, commanding the screen throughout.
Watch State of Emergency on YouTube.
19. Nkem Owoh in Osuofia In London (Part 1 & 2) (2003)
Running time: 2h 36m
Director: Kingsley Ogoro
Genre: Comedy, Drama
In this comedy, Nkem Owoh plays Osuofia, a back-country villager who flies to London after inheriting his late brother’s estate and promptly confronts a world of cultural misreadings. From the moment Osuofia arrives, he commits to being embarrassingly honest in public, leading to some of his most human beats: the pride that won’t let his dignity be mocked and the brief tenderness when he confronts grief for his dead brother.
Osuofia in London became one of Nollywood’s most widely seen comedies and spawned a sequel and countless references in pop culture; Owoh’s performance turned into a durable persona that cemented his status as one of Nollywood’s most recognisable comedic stars.
Watch Osuofia In London (Part 1 & 2) on YouTube.
18. Uzor Arukwe in A Tribe Called Judah (2023)
Running time: 2h 14m
Directors: Funke Akindele and Adeoluwa Owu
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Uzor Arukwe plays Chairman Chigozie Onouha, the flamboyant, sharp-witted and mischievous semi-literate owner of C & K Furniture, who also happens to be a suspected money launderer and ex-boss of Emeka (Jide Kene Achufusi). Arukwe’s Chairman Onouha lingers in the mind not just as a formidable obstacle for the Judah family and a funny supporting character, but as a compelling representation of opportunity and threat.
Arukwe finds the perfect balance. He delivers fun but seamlessly shifts into tension when his character’s power dynamic demands it.
Watch A Tribe Called Judah on Prime Video.
17. Sam Dede in Issakaba (Part 1 & 2) (2001)
Running time: 4h 31m
Director: Lancelot Oduwa Imaseun
Genre: Action, Crime
Sam Dede plays Ebube, the fearless leader of the Issakaba vigilante group who takes up arms against the terror of armed robbers and ritualists wreaking havoc in Eastern Nigeria. He doesn’t just bark orders or swing machetes; he acts with the gravitas of a man burdened by responsibility, constantly negotiating the thin line between justice and violence.
It’s considered his best performance because it captured everything Sam Dede represents as an actor: intensity, intelligence, and an unshakeable screen presence. Issakaba became a cultural touchstone, one of Nollywood’s most influential films, largely because of Dede’s portrayal of Ebube.
Watch Issakaba Part 1 & 2 on YouTube.
16. Lateef Adedimeji in Ayinla (2021)
Running time: 1h 50m
Director: Tunde Kelani
Genre: Drama, Musical
In this musical drama that imagines the life and work of Ayinla Omowura, actor Lateef Adedimeji plays the legendary Àpàlà singer whose music made him a giant in southwestern Nigeria in the 1970s.
The movie follows Ayinla’s rise from local mainstay to star, his relationship with bandmates, lovers, and promoters, his appetite for the good life, his temper, and the tensions that swirl around a prideful, complicated artist.
He convincingly mimes complex lyrics, channelling the charismatic showmanship that makes Ayinla come alive on screen.
Ayinla is streaming on Netflix, but is unavailable in Nigeria.
15. Timini Egbuson in Elevator Baby (2019)
Running time: 1h 23m
Director: Akay Ilozobhie
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Timini Egbuson plays Dare, a spoiled, hot-headed young man born with a silver spoon who becomes trapped in an elevator with Abigail, a heavily pregnant woman played by Toyin Abraham. When she goes into labour in a stuck elevator, Dare has to strip away his arrogance and rise to save her life.
What begins as a clash of personalities slowly transforms into a redemptive journey, with Dare confronting his own immaturity and privilege in the face of a life-or-death crisis. This performance is widely considered his best because it required him to carry the emotional weight of this two-character movie.
Watch Elevator Baby on Prime Video.
14. Stan Nze in Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story (2020)
Running time: 2h 25m
Director: Ramsey Nouah
Genre: Action Thriller
Stan Nze plays Ahanna Okolo, a young man whose life unravels after a series of desperate choices pulls him into the world of organised crime and bloody retribution. As Ahanna rises from petty schemes to dangerous power, the story explores how loyalty, love, and the will to survive drive him to increasingly extreme acts—while the past he thought he escaped continues to haunt him.
Nze delivers a layered performance, making Ahanna empathetic without excusing his violence. He invites the audience into the mind of a man capable of terrible acts, yet still recognisably human.
Watch Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story on Netflix.
13. Kelechi Ugbede in Collision Course (2022)
Running time: 1h 15
Director: Bolanle Austen-Peters
Genre: Action, Drama
Kelechi Udegbe plays Corporal Magnus, a struggling police officer weighed down by financial hardship and desperate to climb the ranks. His path collides with that of Mide, an aspiring musician, at a roadside checkpoint where bribes are a means of survival.
When Magnus accidentally shoots Mide, the incident sparks a chain of legal and social fallout that reverberates through a nation already scarred by state violence. Udegbe brings depth to the role, portraying Magnus not as villain or hero, but as a man caught between duty, survival, and conscience.
Watch Collision Course on Netflix.
12. Tobi Bakre in Farmer’s Bride (2023)
Running time: 1h 52m
Directors: Jack’enneth Opukeme and Adebayo Tijani
Genre: Drama
Tobi Bakre plays Femi, the nephew of a wealthy farmer who returns from the city, a wood carver rather than an academic. His unexpected chemistry with Funmi, his uncle’s young wife, becomes the catalyst for tragedy. He balances the attraction toward Funmi with the weight of his actions: there’s excitement in his movements, but each choice he makes carries a cost.
This is Tobi Bakre’s best performance because he refuses to play Femi as a straightforward romantic lead. Instead, he presents a character who is both alluring and flawed, whose charm leads to destruction.
Farmer’s Bride isn’t streaming anywhere at the moment.
11. Odunlade Adekola in Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman (2022)
Running time: 1h 36m
Director: Biyi Bandele
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Odunlade Adekola takes on the role of Elesin, the king’s horseman. When the Alaafin dies, Elesin is customarily obliged to accompany his ruler into the afterlife through a ritual self-sacrifice so that the king’s spirit may pass safely to the ancestors. Elesin greets his final day with a boisterous celebration, but his human frailty and the disruptive presence of colonial authorities interrupt the ritual.
Adekola’s performance anchors the movie with a rare mix of bravado and interior collapse, showing his dawning comprehension of loss. His body language and vocal restraint carry the film’s moral dissonance in ways that dialogue alone could not.
Watch Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman on Netflix.
10. Femi Adebayo in Jagun Jagun (2023)
Running time: 2h 13m
Directors: Tope Adebayo and Adebayo Tijani
Genre: Action, Drama
Femi Adebayo plays Ogunjimi, a fearsome and revered warlord whose ambition threatens to consume everything around him. The film unfolds as a battle of ideologies and wills, with Ogunjimi embodying ruthless power. It becomes a sweeping exploration of leadership, betrayal, and the corrupting lure of dominance.
What makes this Adebayo’s best performance is how thoroughly he embodies the contradictions of his character. He is not a one-dimensional villain; instead, he is both admirable and terrifying, a leader capable of inspiring loyalty but undone by pride and paranoia.
READ NEXT: The 20 Best Performances By An Actress In A Nollywood Movie, Ranked
9. Richard Mofe-Damijo in Oloibiri (2015)
Running time: 1h 34m
Director: Curtis Graham
Genre: Action, Thriller
Richard Mofe-Damijo plays Gunpowder, a militant leader consumed by anger and disillusionment. He’s a man broken by betrayal and neglect, whose militancy is less about greed than about a desperate and wounded cry for justice. His physical presence commands the screen: every movement, barked order and glare conveys the frustration of an entire generation of Niger Delta youths.
Rather than a one-note villain or rebel, he emerges as a fully realised character whose choices are shaped by systemic failures. RMD strips away the glamour usually associated with his screen presence and leans into grit and anguish, creating a performance that is as unsettling as it is captivating.
8. Fakunle Rotimi in Gangs of Lagos (2023)
Running time: 2h 4m
Director: Jadesola Osiberu
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Fakunle Rotimi plays Kazeem, the calculating political figure whose manipulative grip on the gangs of Lagos underscores the systemic corruption at the heart of Lagos politics. But unlike the overtly violent gang leaders, Kazeem embodies a more dangerous type of villain: the one cloaked in respectability yet pulling the deadliest triggers from the shadows.
This performance is compelling because Rotimi allows menace to seep through subtlety rather than loud declarations. His tone and expressions are measured, yet the weight of his authority is undeniable. His restraint creates an aura of unpredictability: you are never quite sure when his calm will tilt into cruelty.
Watch Gangs of Lagos on Prime Video.
7. Ramsey Nouah in The Figurine (2009)
Running time: 2h
Director: Kunle Afolayan
Genre: Mystery
Ramsey Nouah plays Femi, a carefree youth who grows into an accomplished man whose world slowly corrodes under jealousy, betrayal, and supernatural dread. He, alongside his friend Sola (Kunle Afolayan) discovers a mysterious figurine that grants seven years of good luck to whoever possesses it. They find success but after some time, misfortune finds them. Now, they’re forced to confront whether fate, superstition or result of their choices.
The story darkens as he shades Femi with insecurity and resentment. This movie showed him not just as a matinee idol but as a serious dramatic actor, capable of carrying complex themes of destiny, greed, and human weakness.
Watch The Figurine on YouTube.
6. Gabriel Afolayan in Coming From Insanity (2019)
Running time: 1h 40m
Director: Akinyemi Sebastian Akinropo
Genre: Crime, Thriller
Gabriel Afolayan plays Kossi, a young Togolese boy trafficked into Nigeria as a domestic servant who grows into a brilliant yet conflicted man. The film tells the story of Kossi’s transformation into a self-taught genius with an unusual gift for counterfeiting. When his criminal ingenuity draws the attention of law enforcement and dangerous circles alike, Kossi must navigate the thin line between survival, ambition, and redemption.
As Kossi, Afolayan plays a character whose contradictions demand subtlety and restraint. He doesn’t play Kossi as an antihero; instead, he makes him a layered character who’s equally sympathetic, dangerous, and inspiring.
Watch Coming From Insanity on Prime Video.
5. Femi Jacobs in The Meeting (2012)
Running time: 2h 12m
Director: Mildred Okwo
Genre: Drama
Jacobs plays Makinde Esho, a mild-mannered Lagos-based corporate executive who travels to Abuja to secure a crucial government contract. What should be a simple meeting with a ministry official turns into days of endless waiting, stonewalling, and power games, thanks mainly to the formidable secretary Clara Ikemba (Rita Dominic).
As Makinde navigates this frustrating maze, he also develops an unexpected bond with Ejura (Linda Ejiofor), a young National Youth Service Corps member.
As Makinde, Femi Jacobs embodies the quintessential everyman caught by Nigeria’s institutional inefficiencies.
4. Kunle Remi in Anikulapo (2022)
Running time: 1h 51m
Director: Kunle Afolayan
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Kunle Remi plays Saro, a cloth weaver who drifts into a town and into the world of Queen Arolake (Bimbo Ademoye). A sudden and forbidden romance with the queen pulls him into palace life and danger.
Out of love, Arolake gives him a small, magical gourd that can restore the dead, but Saro uses the power to change his fortune. Wealth and influence follow, but so do moral compromise and supernatural consequence.
What starts as a rags-to-riches tale quickly becomes a cautionary drama about the cost of cheating death and the corrosion of character when power meets appetite. Remi threads Saro’s contradictions carefully as he makes the character credible as an ordinary working man, then believable as someone seduced by privilege, and finally as a defeated figure haunted by the fallout of his choices.
3. Wale Ojo in Breath of Life (2024)
Running time: 1h 54m
Director: BB Sasore
Genre: Drama
Wale Ojo plays Timi, a once brilliant and devout clergyman whose life spirals into despair after a devastating personal tragedy. He abandons his faith, isolates himself from the world, and lives as a broken shell of the man he once was, until a young protégé, Elijah (Chimezie Imo), comes into his life, forcing him to confront his grief, rediscover purpose and find redemption.
As Timi, Wale Ojo embodies the arc of a man drowning in silence and regret; his performance captures the long shadow grief can cast on a life.
Watch Breath Of Life on Prime Video.
2. OC Ukeje in Two Brides and a Baby (2011)
Running time: 1h 31m
Director: Teco Benson
Genre: Romcom
OC Ukeje plays Kole Badmus, the groom whose calm façade cracks as old mistakes and old loves collide with the promise of a new life. The future of his relationship is thrown into chaos when a figure from the groom’s past turns up with a baby on the eve of the wedding.
In this film, Ukeje moves with both quiet intensity and vulnerability: in lighter moments, he can read as awkwardly charming, and in tense scenes, he switches into a man who must answer for choices he once thought were buried.
In this movie, Ukeje is the central character and his acting proves him as an actor capable of delivering complex romantic roles.
Watch Two Brides and a Baby on YouTube.
1. Kola Oyewo in Saworoide (1999)
Running time: 1h 45m
Director: Tunde Kelani
Genre: Drama
Set in the fictional Yoruba town of Jogbo, Kola Oyewo plays Lapite, an ambitious nobleman who conspires to ascend the throne without undergoing the sacred rites. He ushers in a reign of corruption, greed, and abuse of power. His defiance of tradition unbalances the kingdom, setting off a chain of turmoil, betrayal, and resistance that allegorises the decay of governance and morality in Nigeria’s political life.
Playing the role of the manipulative and power-hungry king, Oyewo embodies the archetypal political elite: eloquent, cunning and deeply dangerous to the stability of the community. His character is both a product and a driver of Jogbo’s political crisis, and his interpretation gives flesh to Kelani’s vision.
