There are names in Nollywood that suggest promise, and then there are those like Uzoamaka Power, who live that promise out loud.

Born Uzoamaka Doris Aniunoh on April 10, 1990, in Onitsha, Anambra State, the actress, writer, and storyteller has spent years building a body of work that refuses easy definition. In 2025, she embraced a name that mirrors her evolution. “The name Power resonates with me on a profound level,” she told What Kept Me Up. “It symbolises strength, resilience, and the energy I bring to my craft.” For her, it wasn’t just a rebrand, it was a declaration of intent.

Long before she became one of Nollywood’s most magnetic performers, Uzoamaka had already found her voice in literature. With a B.A. in English and History from the University of Nigeria and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham, she learned early how to turn emotion into story. Writing opened the door to performance; performance deepened her understanding of character. That constant dialogue between words and embodiment still defines her art today.

Her acting debut came in 2017 with MTV Shuga, the long-running pan-African drama that spotlights youth, relationships, and social issues. From there, she took on roles that demanded emotional range and presence, from Diiche on Showmax — where she played the investigative Inspector Ijeoma Anene — to the atmospheric feature Mami Wata, and short films such as Love Language and With Difficulty Comes Ease. Each appearance, whether on the small screen or in cinema, carried her trademark mix of rawness and restraint, the sense that even silence in her scenes says something.

But Uzoamaka’s voice reaches beyond the camera lens. As a published writer, her short fiction has appeared on platforms like Brittle Paper, and she’s been featured in literary circles curated by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whom she cites as one of her early creative influences. In 2025, she revealed she had completed her first feature-length screenplay and was developing a new television series, a move that marks her growing interest in creating worlds, not just acting within them. “My goal is simple,” she has said. “To create great work that speaks for itself.”

Her decision to reclaim Power as both name and identity dates back to 2018. “I first started calling myself Uzoamaka Power back then because I felt empowered by how I was starting out as an actor,” she explained. But in adopting it fully in 2025, she reframed it as an ethos; an insistence on creative and personal agency in an industry that often asks women to shrink. It’s a name that reflects her career: deliberate, unyielding, and deeply rooted in self-definition.

In conversation and in her work, Uzoamaka Power refuses to soften the truth. Her performances are layered with empathy and intensity; her essays and spoken word appearances tackle womanhood, art, and the politics of visibility. She is the rare artist who can embody multiple disciplines without losing coherence, a reminder that Nigeria’s new creative generation isn’t bound by traditional labels.

At this point in her journey, Uzoamaka Power isn’t just acting, writing, or directing; she’s creating a universe around her name. One built on resilience, intellect, and unfiltered honesty. It’s why she belongs in What’s New Mag’s Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop series: because she’s not merely rising — she’s rewriting what it means to show up in full power, and to stay there.

Discover Uzoamaka:
Instagram: @uzoamakapower

‍