Oliver Mbamara
Oliver O. Mbamara is a filmmaker, actor, writer, lawyer and publisher from Nigeria, West Africa.
Law career
After graduating in Law from the University of Lagos Nigeria and the Nigerian Law School, he practiced law in Nigeria while simultaneously engaging in writing scripts and poetic pieces
in which he also performed and while touring around Nigeria with a theater troupe called Prime Circle. He later moved to the United States where he passed the New York bar examination and was subsequently admitted to practice as an attorney. He is currently an administrative law judge with the State of New York.
Written works
Aside from his professional training as a lawyer, Mbamara is a published writer, poet, publisher, editor, actor, filmmaker, director and more. He continues to simultaneously make impact in these varied fields. Mbamara is an international freelance writer as well as columnist with several national, international and regional newsmagazines, news journals, newspapers, and online magazines. His audience is spread around the world and cuts across tribe, race, gender, and profession. Mbamara's articles, poems, and editorials are regularly featured in newspapers, magazines, and websites around the world. He has at least six books to his credit: Why Are We Here? 2004, Flame of Love, The Unrestricted, 2004, Flame of Love, The Spark of God, 2002, Love Poems and Quotes, 2003, Poems of Life, 2nd Edition, 2002, and Poems of Life, 2001.
Theater and film
In 2001, a few years after arriving in the United States, Mbamara launched his first book Poems of Life and played the lead-actor role in an off-Broadway dance drama, Prof. Chudis' Prisoner of the Kalakiri. In 2003, Mbamara directed and played the lead in the stage recreation of Zulu Sofola's Wedlock of the Gods, in New York. Mbamara stars in two feature films: This America and Slave Warrior. He is the writer of This America, in which he also served as Assistant Director and Co-Producer. He is also the writer and director of the feature film Slave Warrior, an African historical action thriller. He is currently working on releasing a book version of the story as a novel or historical literature piece.
New films
Oliver Mbamara has released a number of films and is in the production of many more. Some films written and directed by Oliver Mbamara include:
- Slave Warrior
- This America
- The Return of the Spade
- Spade: The Last Assignment (2008)[1]
- On the Run Again (2010 sequel to This America)[2]
Television production
Recently, Mbamara has delved into television production and has concluded a new TV series titled Cultures, which he created, wrote, and directed. Cultures aims at tolerance amongst differing cultures using humor. In it, an African chief sent from Africa by his kinsmen to bring a wife to their son Ozobio who has stayed too long in America without returning home, arrives America to find out that Ozobio is engaged to an American woman. The chief's persistence leads to a conflict of cultures with the American woman and ultimately to Ozobio's dilemma.[3]