Williams Uchemba Biography: Early life, age, wife, net worth & more

Williams Uchemba is a Nigerian actor, film producer, model, comedian and TV personality. While he began his career in the early 2000s as a child actor, he has engaged in much more than just acting in Nollywood films. In this Williams Uchemba biography, you will learn everything about him and all your questions about the celebrity will be answered.

The talented actor is also popular for his philanthropic activities as well as the business acumen that has made him a well-known entrepreneur. He is also an internationally known figure as a UN Youth Representative. In the next section, we summarise all the important facts about Williams Uchemba.

10 important facts about Williams Uchemba

1. Williams Uchemba was born on 22nd October and appears to be in his thirties.
2. He was born and spent his childhood in Abia State.
3. The actor is a graduate of International Relations and he obtained his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Enugu State.
4. Williams Uchemba started appearing in films in 2000 and made his first major role appearance in the 2001 film, The Journey of the Dead.
5. He won the Best Kid Actor award at the African Movie Academy Awards for his role in the 2002 film, Oh My Son.
6. Williams Uchemba was the brain behind the #IDontLikeWhatIHate social media trend.
7. He was cast in Merry Men 2 and Sugar Rush in 2019.
8. The actor founded the Williams Uchemba Foundation around 2017, a non-profit aimed at taking 1000 kids out of the streets and returning them to school.
9. He owns a film production company named Prosthesis Entertainment Limited and has released a film titled, Hands Full of Blood.
10. In 2018, Williams Uchemba served as the Deputy Nigerian Youth Representative, Youth Assembly at the United Nations.

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Williams Uchemba: age, education and early life

The popular Nigerian actor Williams Uchemba celebrates his birthday on 22nd October every year. However, we could not find a particular year he was born. Several blogs such as Thrill Ng claim he is in his late 30s, which will mean he was born in the 1980s.

While we do not have the facts, Williams Uchemba was likely born on 22nd October in the late 1980s or early 1990s. This is because, in 2000, he was still a child when he appeared in films. The details surrounding his date of birth is unclear but we have some other facts.

For one thing, Williams Uchemba was born in Abia State, a Southeastern region of Nigeria. He grew up with his family in the state and he began his early education there. However, after Uchemba completed his primary and secondary school education in Abia State, he moved to Enugu State for his higher education.

He studied International Relations at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka in Enugu State. Williams Uchemba eventually obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations. Before this time, he had a career in Nollywood, the Nigerian film industry. See the next section for details.

Williams Uchemba Biography: Career

Early film career

In 2000, Williams Uchemba started appearing in minor roles in many Nigerian films.  But, in 2001, he had his first taste of fame when he acted in the film, The Journey of the Dead. He had starred alongside Nollywood greats such as Pete Edochie, Olu Jacobs, and Ramsey Nouah.

Then, a year later, Uchemba again thrilled viewers with his role in the 2002 film, Oh My Son. The film also stars Patience Ozokwor, Amaechi Muonagor, Clarion Chukwurah, Rita Edochie, Bruno Iwuoha, and more. Watch the trailer for the film below…

For his role in the film, Williams Uchemba won his first-ever award, Best Kid Actor Award, at the African Movie Academy Awards. He continued acting in other Nigerian films in the early 2000s.

He appeared in Beyond Belief in 2003 and he was also in the 2006 Nollywood popular film, The World of Riches. After his early stint in the film industry, Williams Uchemba disappeared from the Nollywood scene. According to the actor, he took a break from acting to complete his education.

Williams Uchemba skits

After completing his education, Williams Uchemba returned to the Nollywood industry. During his break from the industry, a lot of things had changed. There were new stars that had not been known during his time as a child actor.

Also, viewership had changed and not many people immediately recognised that the Williams Uchemba they were seeing was the same child actor that used to portray the ‘smart kid’ character in older Nollywood films.

Thus, he did not have to continue in the stereotyped role that he had played as a child. He had a clean slate and he decided to pursue a new niche in comedic acting. He started by making funny skits and posting them on Instagram and YouTube around 2017/2018.

See also: Hilarious! AY Makun’s therapy session with Williams Uchemba [Video]

Williams Uchemba was the brain behind the #IDontLikeWhatIHate trend that went viral after people started using the hashtag to make their own funny videos on social media as well.

He has featured many other celebrities on his skits such as Ayo Makun, Don Jazzy, Paul Okoye and many others.

His skits were getting millions of views and thousands of reactions as well as engagements. In November 2018, Williams Uchemba won two awards at the Social Media Awards in Nigeria. The awards were in the Individual Social Philanthropist and Best of Social Media categories. The awards also came along with a gift of an SUV car as well.

Many people started talking about him at that time. It did not take long for him to return to acting in Nollywood films.

Recent film career

On his return to the Nollywood film industry, Williams Uchemba starred first in the 2018 film, Story Story: The African Rideshare. It was a short comedy film, but it marked the beginning of a career in comedy acting.

In 2019, Williams Uchemba was cast as Johnny in the crime action comedy film, Merry Men 2: Another Mission. He had not starred in the first installation of the film but his input in the sequel was noticeable. Merry Men 2 was directed by Moses Inwang and is currently the 7th highest-grossing Nigerian film in history.

The same year, Uchemba was cast in Sugar Rush. This time, he played a more significant role and was part of the main characters of the film. He delivered exceptionally on his comedic part. Sugar Rush is currently the 4th highest-grossing Nigerian film in history.

Williams Uchemba also owns a film production company called Prosthesis Entertainment Limited and has released a film titled, Hands Full of Blood.

Film and the entertainment world is not the only reason why Williams Uchemba is popular and well-loved. As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, the actor and comedian is also a philanthropist. We will look at some of the notable things he has done in this line.

Williams Uchemba Biography: Philanthropy

The actor founded the Williams Uchemba Foundation around 2017 and the foundation aims to help make the world a better, happier place. It started with a program aimed at taking 1,000 kids out of the streets and returning them to school.

In the same vein, the Williams Uchemba Foundation also strives to ensure that parents have the means to keep their children out of the streets in the future.

In a Facebook post shared in September 2018, the actor writes:

“The Williams Uchembah Foundation started a project two months ago to send at least 1000 kids in each state of Nigeria to school. So far we have successfully enrolled 272 kids into school just in Lagos in the past few months but we have a really long way to go as there are 10.5 million children that are out of school (primary school alone) in Nigeria. So join me. Let’s see how many of them we can put back into school.”

Also, to encourage more people to become involved in charitable acts, he started a Give Challenge Tour in 2017. He challenged other celebrities to do the same thing.

In April 2020, he donated cash and food materials to feed over 5,000 people living in slum communities in Lagos State. Celebrities like Folarin Falana, popularly known as Falz, and Don Jazzy donated towards this cause.

Williams Uchemba also built a house for a family that had been living in a slum in May 2020. He also stated that his US partners offered scholarships up to the university level to the two children in the family.

Many of his fans have mentioned that his acts of philanthropy are what endears him to them.

Besides, in June 2020, the actor adopted an 18-year-old furniture maker and revealed that he has plans to sponsor his education until he graduates from the university. You can read more on this here: Williams Uchemba adopts 18-year-old [Photos]

International recognition

In 2018, many blogs wrongly claimed that the United Nations appointed Williams Uchemba as an ambassador. The actor cleared the air about this issue when it nearly implicated him in a scam in 2019. (We provide details about this in the section addressing his scam controversy).

In a statement he posted on Instagram, he wrote; “Let me also state again that I’m the Deputy Nigerian Youth Representative, Youth Assembly at the United Nations, not ‘UN ambassador in the United Nations.’ These are different bodies.” This means that he only served as an African Youth Representative to the United Nations.

Williams Uchemba: Marriage and wife

On Saturday, 31 October 2020, Williams Uchemba announced that he was engaged to be married. However, he did not reveal the name of his fiancee at the time. Instead, he thanked her for agreeing to be his wife.

Then, on 14 November 2020, Williams Uchemba revealed that his fiancee was Brunella Oscar. They had been dating since January 2017 after meeting on Facebook in 2016. Somehow, the actor had managed to keep his relationship secret until this announcement.

Williams Uchemba married Brunella Oscar on 21 November 2020 at a church wedding after their traditional marriage ceremony on 15 November 2020. He had Falz, Ayo Makun, Peter Okoye, Banky W and Frank Edwards as part of his groomsmen.

Williams Uchemba Biography: Net worth

According to Austine Media, Williams Uchemba’s net worth is estimated to be $500,000 as of 2018. While this sounds plausible, it is hard to trust the figure as it is outdated and there is no detail on how the exact value of the net worth was estimated.

We can provide facts about the actor’s income to aid readers in guessing what his net worth will be like. As mentioned in the section about his film career, Williams Uchemba has starred in two of the highest-grossing films in Nigeria. Likely, he would have earned a wholesome income from them.

In July 2020, Chiji14xchange, a platform for selling and buying cryptocurrency signed Williams Uchemba as an ambassador. These are some of the well-known sources of the actor’s income.

Williams Uchemba: Scam controversy

A few years ago, Williams Uchemba was accused of scamming people over US visa applications. Here is what happened.

In 2018, a US-based activist named Edafe Okporo accused Williams Uchemba of being a fraudster. According to Okporo, a Twitter account allegedly run by Uchemba was demanding Nigerian youths to pay $1,000 to get them invited to a youth event in the United States.

The activist notified the United Nations Youth Envoy of the issue and Jayathma Wickramanayake, an aide to the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres, discredited the $1,000 request and denied having dealings with Uchemba.

Read also: ‘How are you different from a fraudster?’ – OAP Toolz and Falz tackle Diezani over Yahoo boys comment

On his part, the actor took to Instagram to clear his name. He revealed that he does not have a Twitter account and that the alleged account is likely an impersonator. Part of his statement reads:

“First of all, I have said it tons of times, ‘Be careful with scammers.’ I have posted a lot of pictures of people using my name to defraud people. I have reported a lot of accounts. As a matter of fact, there is a guy on Twitter.

“I’m not on Twitter; I have never had a Twitter account. He has 15,000 followers posing to be me. His name is Williams Uchemba and a lot of people he has defrauded have called me to say, ‘There is somebody using that (name)’ and I don’t know what to do about that.”

He explained that many delegates to a conference scheduled in the US were unable to get appointments for their visa interviews so he decided that only those that already have visa would be appointed delegates by him. According to his now-deleted statement, he was shocked when someone tagged him and called him a scammer.

In the concluding part of his statement, Williams Uchemba seems to admit that there were occasions that he and the conference organisers asked people for money towards the processing of their visas. However, he says the money is to pay those that do the processing work after he has given people invitations.

Here is how he explained it in his own words: “If you had come to ask me, ‘Why is this charge like this?’ I would have explained it to you. I’m not the US embassy; I don’t give visas. When people come and say, ‘Williams, after we get the invitation and you put us through, is the visa guaranteed?’ and I say no. So, you can either do it yourself or we have people. The reason people pay that amount is that we employ people to do these things. We pay for them. So, it is very disheartening for this information to get out without a proper investigation.”

The issue later cooled off after the actor released this statement.

Final thoughts …

This biography about Williams Uchemba has revealed that the actor had managed to break into two different eras of Nollywood. It points to his talent and ability to interpret roles properly. Besides his acting career, we also saw that he is invested in human development.

His philanthropic activities are a testament to his selfless love for fellow humans and desire to help as many people as he can. It is one reason many fans love him and wish to see him succeed more in his film endeavours.