Nollywood actor Timini Egbuson has shared his journey of leaving a stable corporate job to pursue an acting career.
During a chat with Matel Nigeria’s Swift Diaries, Egbuson revealed that he worked as a sales and marketing executive for an e-commerce company before landing his breakthrough role in the MTV series Shuga.
“I was an assistant for my sister’s best friend at a time she had an eye wear line that she was rolling at her apartment in Ikoyi. But for a company, I was a sales and marketing executive for a big company that was into e-commerce,” Egbuson said.
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According to Egbuson, he would often lie to his boss to attend auditions, and it was during one such audition that he landed the role in Shuga. After informing his boss about his acting aspirations, he was given two to three weeks of unpaid leave to pursue his dreams.
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“I told my boss that I had this acting thing that I wanted to take off my bucket list, and he said okay, no problem, that he was going to give me two to three weeks without pay to fulfill my acting dreams,” Egbuson recalled.
However, upon returning to his job, colleagues and clients kept referring to his role in Shuga, making him realize that acting could be a viable career path.
“When I got back to my old job, it was weird because when I was out to meet clients and business partners to secure deals, they’d keep on commenting on my role in the movie Sugar. It dawned on me that I might probably be able to make a career out of acting,” Egbuson said.
Egbuson also opened up about facing rejection in the industry, including a painful experience when he didn’t make it to the final five contestants on a popular South African reality TV show.
“There were lots of times I was rejected. A whole lot of times I feel like the rejections are one of the things that also pushed me to become who I am today. I remembered crying after rejection from a popular reality TV show that was once aired in South Africa. We were narrowed down to five, and I was so sure I would be picked. I had even given someone my password to handle my social media for people to vote for me. They said you would get a call if you were to be picked. I didn’t get the call,” Egbuson shared.
He added, “Two weeks later, I got the call that I had gotten the role for MTV Sugar. I just imagined myself locked in a house when I could have been on MTV Sugar, which was like my essence, my core of what I was genuinely interested in. So when things don’t work out for you, it’s okay.”
Timini Egbuson’s sister, Dakore Egbuson-Akande, is also a renowned Nollywood actress who has graced the screens with many movies showcasing that acting is a thing that runs in the blood of both siblings.