#MCM-Teju Babyface

How good it feels to start our week writing our crush about a young man with a positive attitude, considerable talent, political satirist, writer, speaker, master of ceremonies, standup comedian, talk show host, actor and mentor. He is Gbadewonuola Olateju Oyelakin, popularly known as Teju Babyface.

Teju was born January20, 1979 in Lagos, Nigeria . He attended Corona School Apapa, Federal Government College Ogbomoso and the University of Lagos where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Insurance. A course he was never interested in. ‘I never set out to read Insurance. As a matter of fact, I was largely uninterested in all the courses that were on offer and I left the choice of my major to my parents who put in for accounting whereupon I was offered Insurance, which we had to take’. Teju is married to model, former pageant winner and former contestant of MBGN, Oluwatobiloba Banjoko

Comedy and acting brought for him, early fame. In the year 1998,Teju got an important role in the block-buster movie Diamond ring. He tried as much as he could, to remain in the movie industry, however, it did not work out.

‘I kept waiting for something to happen’, he says, ‘and when it never did, I tried to make it happen by going to meet the established directors of that day but nothing I did seemed to work’. During these times, Teju soon realized that whilst acting was greatly dependent on being cast in any role by producers and directors, stand-up comedy was a field that offered perhaps equal fame and fortune with a freedom to perform that he would never find in acting and so he took a friend up on an offer to act as the Emcee for a departmental end of year in the university. He enjoyed the experience so much that he spent less time trying to act and focused more on comedy and was soon rewarded with success and recognition.

In the year 2010, Teju started The Teju Baby Face show which became an instant hit on television in Nigeria and beyond. He had always been of the opinion that stand-up comedy was a means to an end and after a decade as one of Nigeria’s headline stand-up comedy acts, he saw the show as the perfect way to impact and influence more people. The very first of its kind in Nigeria, the show brought an infusion of late night American television with hints of recent projects like the Ellen DeGeneres, Steve Harvey and Arsenio Hall Shows to African television. The show has played host to many celebrities and important personalities and remains an original African offering with such features as the theme music (Eri Okan/Conscience by King Sunny Ade) introducing viewers to a glimpse of the African soul.

In May 2017, Teju Babyface officially launched his book, Secrets of the Streets. He also introduced his mentoring Academy in June 2017. As Teju explains it, "our academy was born out of overwhelming demand from the masses of youth who craved direction and instruction on talent development and had little means of finding it in the Nigerian and African space".

At 37, Teju Babyface is an icon and role model. Speaking at the United Action for Change 2016 program, he said, comedy, Dimond ring and every other thing he engaged in were stepping  stones to where he is right now, and where he is heading.















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