Chidinma Ifunanyachi goes from Nollywood to Hollywood

Los Angeles, CA (October 24, 2024). Chidinma Ifunanyachi is an actress and writer. She that grew up in South-East London, or Camberwell to be precise. She is making a name for herself in the entertainment industry. Chidinma grew up in a single-parent household. There she had to learn to be independent at an early age. Chidinma had a desire to teach in schools and always had a love for education. She saw how education helped her have financial freedom. After the years went on she found herself being inquisitive for the Arts and wanted to pursue a career in acting.

With only 4 years of acting experience, she has now featured in ten (10) film productions: two (2) web-series and cast in acting projects filming in 2025. If you say Chidinma is on the right path, then you are accurate. She created her debut short film Violated from meeting up with female friends in Nigeria, who had shared their experience with rape in their marriages.

Chidinma then started asking more women about their experiences with this topic and found it was common amongst many women. Chidinma then wanted to write a script around this topic and spread awareness to women letting them know this isn’t right, even though many of the women felt as though this was how most marriages are. 

Ifunanyachi in Violated – 2021 Latest Short Film

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Chidinma then decided that she wanted to create impactful films addressing social injustices, especially within different communities like Nigeria. Her short film Violated went viral on YouTube, influencing young audiences, educational institutions, and raising awareness on sexual consent.

As a leading actress, Chidinma is focused on making impactful films that look at what is happening around the world and is having meetings around the world about future projects in Los Angeles, London and Nigeria. She wants to drive positive change through her commitment as an actress and writer. She has been cast in a new feature film Boy Soul Man Heart set to shoot in 2025, telling a gripping story about a young Black man that was abused. We see how he dealt with the trauma over a period.

Chidinma was inspired by Uzo Aduba from the hit series Orange is the New Black who played ‘Crazy Eyes’. She listened to Uzo’s Ted Talk in 2017 where she discussed her name. Chidinma has said  “Watching Uzo give a Ted Talk about the importance of your name, and how the pronunciation of your name becomes important, once you become important, was life changing for me. Being Nigerian, our names can sometimes be sentences, usually in reverence to God.

Chidinma in Music video, ‘More to Me’  by Dexter in the newsagent

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My mum’s side of the family comes from the Igbo tribe. My Igbo name is Chidinma, which means God is good, but on my birth certificate and all my legal documentation, my first name is Cheryl. Don’t get me wrong, I love my legal name, but it does not ring true of my ancestry. I understand that my parents wanted to reduce the risk of bullying and racism, or me being treated differently due to having an African name. That’s how I got Cheryl as a first name. I’m so proud of my heritage. Once I decided I was going to be an actress, I knew it was my duty to make sure people know my origin. It’s important that everyone knows that I am a Nigerian. So, difficult to pronounce or not, there will come a point where people will have no option but to pronounce my name properly, because they will not be able to escape seeing my name everywhere.

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