Bruno Iwuoha: The inspiring story of a non-actor's rise to Nollywood fame

For Nollywood savvy Millennials, Bruno Iwuoha's woolly Afro hair has a familiar squeeze of nostalgic effect.

The veteran actor got frequently cast in soft-spoken, fatherly roles primarily for his hair. Interestingly, his naturally grey hair gave him his Nollywood shot.

A testament to non-actors finding their path in filmmaking, Bruno Iwuoha's nearly two-decade acting career began when Christopher Kolon, a Nollywood talent scout discovered him at his workplace in Onne, Port Harcourt. At the time, the actor worked as a licensed contractor with the National Fertiliser Company of Nigeria (NAFCON).

ALSO READ: Is casting social media Influencers jeopardizing Nollywood? [Pulse Editor's Opinion]

Shortly after, Iwuoha made his acting debut playing an old man in the 1999 Ndubuisi Okoh directed 'Lost Kingdom' alongside Pete Edochie, Enebeli Enebuwa and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde.

But before his stroke of luck in Nollywood, Iwuoha had planned to become a Catholic priest. In a 2016 interview with People's Daily, he described the recurrent morally upright roles he got from producers as reflective of his moral standing.

"I think they discovered the person. It is something that is in that person that speaks for the person. There is no point saying it is pretence and all that. One, I came from a morally committed family. I was to be a priest but along the line, my father objected to it because you know that in the Roman Catholic doctrine, priests don’t marry."

In his active years, Iwuoha featured in several movies including 'World Apart', 'Days Of Hatred', 'Occultic Battle', 'Anunuebe' and his AMAA award-winning role in 'Sins of the Flesh'. Iwuoha won his first and only Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) in the best supporting actor category in 2007.

Bruno Iwuoha sadly died on April 10, 2021, after over six years of battling diabetes and glaucoma to which he lost an eye. He was 66 and survived by six children.