Women We Love – Zainab Balogun

August 16, 2017

If you live on social media, you must have seen the trailer for the new Ebony Life TV movie The Royal Hibiscus Hotel starring Kenneth Okolie and Zainab Balogun.

When I clicked on the trailer, I wasn’t too sure of what to expect – Comedy? Food? Romance? – but by the time I finished watching it, I called out to my colleague in excitement!!!

“ZAINAB BALOGUN IS ABOUT TO BECOME A MOVIE STAR!”

I am so excited that Zainab has landed her first lead role in a movie because I have followed her career since she moved back to Nigeria in 2012. In the space of four years, she has taken the Nigerian Entertainment Industry by storm, stamping her mark everywhere!

So in celebration of Zainab’s first lead role – and definitely not her last – here are 5 reasons why everyone at tw loves her!

Zainab is OH SO GOREGEOUS with that smooth brown skin, long legs and signature cropped haircut!

2. Zainab’s fashion game is on another level – she always looks stylish and well put together!

3. Zainab is one multi-talented and hardworking young lady- she is a Model, Television Host, Producer, Actress, Entrepreneur (phew… Is there anything she can’t do? Some of us can’t even keep up with ONE job!)

4. She has a will of steel. When she moved back to Nigeria from the UK, she got casted in the series, The Island, but things were a bit slow. “I was living at home off my savings,” she said in a TW Magazine cover interview in 2015. “Every day my mother would tell me to go back to England.” But rather than go back to the UK to practise law, Zainab braved the odds and stayed. This decision would change everything for her – she was able to secure a spot on Ebony Life TV a mere 6 months after moving home.

5. In a society that puts an unnecessary emphasis on being light skinned, Zainab still loves her dark skin – “I am an awkward black person,” Zainab said in her 2015 interview with tw. “I love sitting down under the sun! I really don’t care if I get darker.”