Nk’iru. Njoku

Nk’iru. Njoku is a Nigerian writer and a BBC London Voices 2021 cohort, with over 15 years of television writing experience under her belt in a career which began in Nigeria and was domiciled there until she moved to England in 2018. She will be joining the Writers’ Lab UK & Ireland cohort in 2022.

For 7.5 years she was head writer of award-winning Tinsel, a long running continuing drama produced by Mnet/Africa Magic and broadcast to all of Africa. She was with the show for 11 years, starting out as an episode writer, then story editor, before becoming lead writer and going on to helm the writing of over 2000 episodes. Whilst with Tinsel, Nk’iru. also wrote episodes for two telenovelas on the Mnet/Africa Magic network, and worked extensively with MTV/Staying Alive Foundation on their drama series MTV-Shuga. She was episode writer for 3 seasons of the Nigerian edition (Shuga Naija), script doctor for 1 season of the Indian edition (MTV Nishedh), consultant showrunner for 1 season of the Ivory Coast version (Shuga Babi), and co-head writer/director for the worldwide ‘lockdown’ edition – Shuga Alone Together.

Nk’iru. is also a director who has worked in fiction and non-fiction. For 8 years which overlapped with her time at Mnet/Africa Magic, Nk’iru. was in the content department of Project Fame West Africa – a musical-talent hunt and reality show produced by Ultima Limited, Lagos and broadcast to Anglophone Africa. She was a content director for 2 seasons, and head of content for 6 seasons. At Ultima, Nk’iru. went on to pioneer the company’s drama department where she helped create Aduke Hotel, a comedy-drama, for which she was head writer.

Nk’iru.’s gritty and thought-provoking short film about broken trust and sex trafficking – Orìkí, written and directed by her, won the Women in Film award at the Black Star International Film Festival, Ghana (2019). It also screened at Cannes Pan African International Film Festival (2019), AFRIFF – African International Film Festival, Lagos (2019), and Female Eye Film Festival’s International Women’s Day Program, TIFF BELL Lightbox, Toronto (2020), amongst others.

Nk’iru. resigned from her job as head writer of Tinsel in August 2021 to focus on building her UK career. Since then, she has written for a Netflix Original, and was part of a writers’ room in London for a series part-commissioned by one of the big streamers. Her creative focus is on developing diverse stories for British television as well as the stage – where she hopes to find a second home for her storytelling.