Nollywood actress Zainab Balogun has joked that she used to ‘scam’ her modeling agency by reading for roles that required lines even though she had no acting experience at the time.
The 32-year-old opened up about what she described as “greatest scam of her life” and how it led to her acting career while appearing on Inkblot’s Meet & Greet.
According to the “Chief Daddy” star she was studying law at school when she was scouted by a modeling scout aged 16.
“I went to school with the plan of becoming a lawyer. So when I was younger, there is this memory I have of my mum where she was asking me what do I wanna be? I remember seeing one of those tall buildings in the city of London and I was like, “oh yeah I want to work in one of those buildings,” she recalls
“In my mind it was lawyers that worked in that building. So I said oya, let’s start the journey. So I went to school to study law. Then I was scouted at 16 by a modeling agency and that’s when the whole modeling thing kinda started
“So at some point in your modeling career, you start going out for commercials. You get the wakapass opportunity or you might get the one line. So eventually I started reading for roles that had a few more lines, they were feature roles. And to my surprise, these people did not know that I was scamming them. They did not know that I didn’t know what I was doing. So I just felt like okay, well if they keep giving me work then I’m going to continue. And I just continued. So that is the greatest scam of my life guys. And that’s how I sorta fell into acting and I loved it”
Despite becoming an actress by accident, star makes it clear that wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
“I say now till this day, if I can act for the rest of my life, I would. Like, that’s my joy,” she told the outlet.
