the charming reality TV star and actress Erica Nlewedim is offering fans a ringside view of her life with her new partnership with MTVBASE
People will easily misjudge you, especially if you are a television star with a huge following on social media. This seems to be the case of Erica Nlewedim, the Big Brother Naija former contestant who grabbed headlines during her time in the reality series last year for good and bad reasons.
The level of criticism is not peculiar to Nlewedim alone. Anyone in the fame business, particularly those who rose to stardom either through hebdomadal TV drama series or reality TV shows. Once you are in the spotlight, criticism is not inevitable.
Whether the young actress and model was prepared for the public shredding of her private life or not, one thing is clear, her star wattage is amplified with every mention of her name on social and traditional media. Thanks to her devoted fans who christened themselves ‘Elites.’ These persons from different walks of life are committed to promoting the reality TV star. On social media platforms like Twitter, their voice is deafening, like the piercing sound of a church bell. They sometimes act as a strong army, protecting Nlewedim from any attacks while challenging anyone who dared to cross their paths. Their weapon is the hashtags. Fire an arrow, and you get a hashtag that either stultifies you or amplifies the voice of their hero.
These fans are the first to reveal any achievement of Nlewedim such that when MTV Base announced the new reality TV show ‘Inside Life’ that will feature the model, the fans broke the news and began a countdown hashtag to the premiere of the show. It is almost a given to see the star as one of the trending stories on Twitter nowadays.
Beyond the activities of her fans, Erica has equally worked hard to earn accolades such that she doesn’t feel under pressure to meet the demands of her fans.
“I feel under pressure to meet my own demands and goals,” she said. “I’m very ambitious, and I set a lot of high goals for myself. And luckily, I have achieved a lot of goals that have impressed my fans, and they are very happy with my success.”
Blessed with pulchritude, ever since her departure from Big Brother Naija House, the actress has been clinching one deal or the other, promoting brands while positioning herself as the best hand for the job.
Her hardworking disposition can be traced to her teen years. At age 17, the commercial model from Abia State landed her first modelling job with a furniture company and earned N50,000. Subsequent offers elevated her status, and she even contested in the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria in 2014, where she clinched the Most Photogenic award for Kogi State. It wasn’t long before she set her eyes on Nollywood, appearing in her first TV drama series, ‘Secrets and Scandals’ in 2015. The graduate of Business Administration from Covenant University would further hone her acting skills at Met Film School in London in 2019 before participating in Big Brother Naija.
At first, her mother was against her choice of career. She wanted her only child to have a nine-to-five job like her peers but Nlewedim didn’t see her toeing that path, although she once worked for a company to accommodate her mother’s concerns. But today, her mother is elated to see her achievement. The worry of her having a white-collar job no longer exists.
Despite her hustling spirit, Nlewedim believes that she deserves a me-time too. She recently tweeted that it was time to put her first.
When asked about the tweet, she explained, “It relates to my life. I have been working non-stop so I’m trying to relax. I have been putting a lot of people first, putting their feelings over mine. God said, ‘love your neighbours as you love yourself,’ so I’m trying to love myself more so I can love people around me better.”
With ‘Inside Life,’ Nlewedim is now the network’s first Nigerian celebrity to feature in the new reality TV series. In recent times, ViacomCBS Networks Africa has been bringing stories of African superstars on their various platforms. Last March, it premiered a reality TV show on South African singer Busiswa on BET Africa. With ‘Inside Life’ on MTV Base, it is providing viewers with premium entertainment and storytelling with original scripted and non-scripted shows.
The series, which will premiere on June 9, follows the model as she navigates the business and entertainment worlds.
“The series shows that I’m growing, and MTV Base is a very huge platform and is international. It gives me a lot of optimism that I’m doing something right and in future that I will also become international,” she said.
What’s most interesting about the reality TV show for her is that people will understand her better.
“They will get to know that what they see on the internet is most times untrue and a tip of the iceberg. I will be very interested in seeing people’s reactions when they get to see the true story behind some headlines in the past few months. They will get to realise that their assumptions are just assumptions.”
The ever-smiling model feels she has been misjudged a lot since she left the Big Brother Naija House and believes that ‘Inside Life with Erica’ will show the audience who she truly is without filters.
“They will get to see me as a human being that I am and not as the public portrays me to be. Most times, there are so many touching moments in my life, successes and generally good news about me, but I don’t really see that in the news. For the people who don’t really know me, when they watch the reality TV show, they will get to see everything that makes me a human being and not just the negative stuff.”
She added, “I’m not promising that they will get to see me smiling and laughing all the time, but they will understand me better. In life, things don’t always go smoothly for people all the time. So in ‘Inside Life,’ they will get to see my low moments as well as my wings, that is, my high moments.”
Nlewedim feels blessed for her career trajectory. She is obviously not close to her ultimate goal.
“I’ve only had less than a year in the spotlight. Even before the new spotlight, I have only been known for only five years, which is not as long as many who are already famous. I believe I’m on my way, and I’m very optimistic that I will get there in a short amount of time,” she affirmed.
THIS DAY
