Stella Damasus says To Kill a Monkey revived her career, reveals she almost lost the role

• Stella Damasus says To Kill a Monkey reinvigorated her acting career and changed how audiences and industry figures viewed her.

• She reveals she was not the original choice for Nosa, submitting a self-tape less than 24 hours before the audition deadline.

• Damasus says the production team eventually rewrote the character for her after seeing her audition.

Veteran actress Stella Damasus has credited Netflix series "To Kill a Monkey" with reinvigorating her career, revealing that she was not the original choice for the role that brought her widespread recognition.

Speaking on Pulse Nigeria's "Old Vs New," where she reacted to clips from her past and present film work, Damasus said the show, created by Kemi Adetiba, changed how audiences and industry figures saw her. 

She said she still gets recognised today by fans quoting lines from her character, Nosa, and that the reaction followed her well beyond Nigeria, including in the United States, Canada and Ireland.

Damasus said the role was originally written for a younger actress and had already finished casting when her then-management representative convinced her to submit a self-tape, with less than 24 hours' notice. At the time, she was in the United States and had to record the audition over a video call with the help of another actor in Nigeria reading opposite her.

She said she heard nothing back for a while and assumed the role had gone to someone else, only to later learn that the production team had chosen to rewrite the character to fit her instead of casting someone younger.

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Damasus described the production as demanding, saying it pushed her to revisit her craft despite her experience, and credited her co-stars, including Lilian Afegbai, William Benson, Bucci Franklin and Sunshine Rosman, for raising the standard on set.

To Kill a Monkey premiered on Netflix in July 2025 and follows a man drawn into cybercrime after reconnecting with a childhood friend, with Damasus playing his wife, Nosa. The series has been widely praised as one of Kemi Adetiba's strongest projects to date, following her earlier work on King of Boys.