This Is How Acting Allows Chikamma to Live Many Lives

“Art is very reflective,” he began. “It’s a mirror. You see yourself in it, and then you adapt.”

Born in Nigeria and now based in London, Chika’s journey across industries and continents has been shaped by one central idea: storytelling must be truthful. 

With over five years of experience across stage and screen, Chika has appeared in Nigerian features like Night of June 7, Baby Steps, and Reverse, produced by Linda Ikeji earned a Best Actor award for Ihunanya’m, and more recently moved into theatre and film projects in the UK. 

Yet, for him, growth has never been measured by location alone, but by how close his work feels to honesty.

Acting as a Way of Living Many Lives

Unlike the familiar “I’ve always wanted to act since childhood” narrative, Chika pauses before settling there, even though it’s true for him.

“Yes, the passion was born from childhood,” he says, “but I had to find a reason beyond what everyone else was saying.”

That reason became learning.

For Chika, acting is not performance for applause; it is inquiry. A tool for observing humanity, reflecting it, and asking deeper questions about what life contains beyond survival.

“I believe life is short,” he explains, “so you need to try to live as many ways and as many times as you can. Acting is one of the ways I do that.”

This philosophy has shaped the types of roles he gravitates toward, emotionally driven characters that allow him to sit with ambiguity, vulnerability, and truth rather than surface-level symbolism.

When Familiar Roles Start to Feel Like a Trap

Back in Nigeria, Chika was working. He was visible. But something wasn’t changing.

“There were moments,” he admits, “where I felt like I was repeating the same thing over and over again.”

The characters were different on paper, but the emotional demand remained largely the same. Over time, this repetition began to feel less like mastery and more like stagnation.

“I’m someone who believes in growth and personal development,” he says. “At a point, I realised I wasn’t growing in the way I wanted to.”

There was also the quiet pressure many actors understand all too well, the need to take roles not out of passion, but necessity. 

“There’s a difference between reading a script and genuinely wanting to do it,” he explains, “and reading a script and feeling forced to do it because you need to survive.”

That tension between choice and survival ultimately prompted his move to the UK.

Training for the Craft, Not Just the Market

Chika is careful not to frame his experience as a harsh comparison between Nigeria and the UK. Instead, he speaks about structure.

“In Nigeria, the longest acting programme I did was about three months,” he says. “Here, the training is longer. That changes everything.”

Longer programmes allow instructors to track growth, identify weaknesses, and guide actors intentionally. More importantly, UK training assumes a global audience.

“You’re not trained just for your immediate industry,” he explains. “You’re trained for the world.”

In multicultural classrooms, with students from every corner of the globe, characterisation becomes deeper and more deliberate. Accents, history, psychology, and context are interrogated, not assumed.

“You’re no longer playing ‘a Nigerian’ as a broad idea,” Chika says. “You’re making conscious choices, where is this character from, what shapes them, how do they sound, how do they move?”

For him, this dismantling of stereotypes, especially about African identities, has been one of the most valuable shifts.

Representation and Systems

One of the biggest differences Chika points out is representation.

“In the UK, representation is a big deal,” he says. “A lot of jobs go through agencies.”

Being signed doesn’t guarantee work, but it guarantees access, an organised flow of opportunities that many Nigerian actors still struggle to access consistently.

He also points to production systems.

“I’ve shot exterior scenes here without anyone stopping you for money,” he recalls with a laugh. “In Lagos, it’s the opposite. You’re worried for your life.”

From permits to set safety, structure allows actors to focus on performance rather than survival.

Then there’s technique.

“In school, we studied acting techniques in depth,” Chika says. “And the key thing they teach you is: what works for me might not work for you.”

Rather than prescribing one method, actors are exposed to multiple approaches, script analysis, voice work, and physicality, and encouraged to test, adapt, and discard what doesn’t serve them.

Finding Himself

Perhaps the most profound change Chika describes is internal.

“In Nigeria, I realised I was beginning to focus too much on feedback,” he says. “Who is watching me? Who do I need to impress?”

Over time, that mindset began to distort the work. The structured environment in the UK forced him back to fundamentals.

“Now, I focus on the truth of the scene,” he says. “Not who is clapping.”

This shift has brought a new confidence. Even on tired days, even on bad days, he knows he can access his craft.

“It’s not by chance anymore,” he Over time, that mindset began to distort the work.says. “I know how to arrive.”

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Work, Growth, and the Joy of Return to Stage

Since relocating, Chika has worked on several projects spanning action films, shorts, and theatre.

He collaborated on By Blood, an action short that required him to learn martial arts, something entirely new. He also appeared in Echoes from the Past, which continues its festival run and has earned international recognition including the Universal movie awards, Africa International Film Festival (Nominee for Best international short film) and Africa Movie Academy Award also nominated Best short film.

Most recently, he returned to the stage, a long-standing desire.

“I wanted to do theatre so badly in Nigeria,” he says. “Being able to do it here now, I’m grateful.”

Theatre, for Chika, feels like a homecoming. A space where discipline, body awareness, and emotional truth converge without shortcuts.

Starting Again, Without Starting Over

Adapting to the UK industry hasn’t been seamless.

“In Nigeria, even indirectly, you know people,” Chika explains. “You can hear about opportunities.”

In the UK, relationships must be rebuilt from scratch. Networks take time. Recognition is slower. But he doesn’t resent the process.

“I’m excited to rebuild,” he says. “I’ve done it before.” That rebuilding has also recalibrated his sense of worth. “There are moments when doubt creeps in,” he admits. “But when I look at the work, the feedback, the growth, I know I’m in the right place.”

Chika’s Future

While acting remains central, Chika is also exploring writing and the business side of filmmaking.

“I’ve written,” he says. “I want to do more of that.”

For him, the future is not about abandoning one identity for another, but expanding the space he occupies within storytelling.

His stage play, Delilah, will be showing at the Birmingham Box Theatre on November 29, 2025.

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