Who is Mark Angel?
Mark Angel is the real name of the Nigerian comedian, scriptwriter and video producer. He is, best known for the Mark Angel Comedy series. His comedy videos are popularly called skits and they are available on his Youtube Channel. He has successfully carved out a niche for himself in the field and has become widely acclaimed.
Mark Angel features child comedians such as his niece, Emmanuella Samuel, and her younger sister, “Aunty” Success Madubuike, as well as other children. He is now a well-known comedian but his journey to stardom did not happen overnight and we’ll also be exploring that in this special article. However, before we deep-dive into the biography of Mark Angel in detail, let us see some important facts that you should know about the comedian.
10 facts about Mark Angel that everyone needs to know
- Mark Angel’s real name is Mark Angel and it is not a stage or performance name. This is kind of different from most Nigerian comedians who pick up stage names for their careers as many artists do.
- Angel was once enrolled to study medicine at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) but had to drop out after his sponsor died.
- Mark Angel has no formal training as a comedian. However, he is a trained cinematographer.
- Mark Angel is Emmanuella’s uncle in real life. They are truly related and it is not all just acting.
- He had tried getting into Nollywood but most of his productions did not see the light of day. His mother seemed to have had a huge role in thwarting his Nollywood aspirations.
- Mark Angel Comedy became the first African comedy YouTube channel to reach 1 million subscribers in 2017. his channel currently has over 5.6 m subscribers.
- Before going viral online, Mark Angel had released over 30 comedy skits on YouTube and it was the 36th with Emmanuella, titled ‘Am Not Around’ that kickstarted his journey to stardom.
- Mark Angel probably makes up to $100,000 dollars on YouTube monthly.
- The most-watched video on the Mark Angel Comedy channel is ‘Maths Teacher’ and it has over 24 million views.
- Mark Angel’s comedy style is Freestyle Comedy as it doesn’t seem to fall strictly within any of the major Comedy types but rather seems to borrow from several comedy genres.
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Mark Angel: Age & early life
Mark Angel was born on 27th May 1991 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, into the Angel family. He likely spent most of his formative years in the city, which has produced so many stars in Nigeria. Rex Lawson was born in Port Harcourt as well as others like Damini Ogulu, Joseph Yobo and Tonto Dikeh.
It is plausible that Mark Angel likely never had show business in his mind while growing up. In fact, after concluding secondary school education he had gone on to study medicine at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
He had gotten admitted into the school in 2008 with what looked like bright prospects in the medical field ahead of him. However, his uncle who would have sponsored his education died suddenly. Left with no choice, he had to drop out of school and seek out some other future for himself.
As for regrets about abandoning medical school, Mark Angel has stated he had none. “I knew I was not ready for school and I decided not to go to school again. I do not regret my decision because I would not have found fulfilment practising as a doctor,” says he during an interview with the Punch Newspaper.
Mark Angel decided to try his hand in the entertainment industry.
Mark Angel biography: Early career 2011-2013
In the beginning, while starting out, Mark Angel had worked as a photographer. During his role as a photographer, he worked with a theatre group, Gingertainment. The group specialised in stage drama performances but focused mostly on comedy.
They went from school to school trying to establish interest in the mind of the younger generation. However, their success was limited at the time. Then, Mark Angel got a chance to study cinematography for some time in India.
At the end of the study and with the training he had acquired, Mark Angel ventured into Nollywood. This also turned out to be a short stint as well. This time, it was not because of the lack of success but because his conservative mother had issues with some of the content he worked on.
According to him, he had some productions he had worked on but his mother always had a bone to pick with the projects until he had to stop doing them as well.
He also ran a production company called Mechanics Production (sometimes mistakenly referred to as Mechanic Pictures) around 2012. Mechanics Production used to shoot photos and videos for movies and comedy productions.
At one time when he was out of a job, he had to work as a security man for some time before his breakthrough in comedy. The rest is history as the saying goes.
Mark Angel biography: Career 2013-present
In an interview with the Punch, Mark Angel had opened up that it was his friend’s idea to start a media brand. At first, they had not succeeded in the new business as well.
“My friend, Dennison Igwe, suggested that we start our own media company. We did skits which we put on the Internet but it was not successful. We did what we loved for fun and not for money,” he told this newspaper.
Then Mark Angel decided to cast the child comedian, Emmanuella (Emmanuella comedy), on one of his next video skits. This led to the eventual huge success that drove the comedian to fame.
One of the earliest videos that went viral featured Mark Angel, Emmanuella and a landlord character. The episode was titled Am Not Around. While many think it was the first video in the Mark Angel Comedy series, it is not. The skit Am Not Around is actually the 36th skit but it was the first one to go viral and currently has over 1 million views on YouTube.
After this, the 48th episode titled My Real Face was released and outdid Am Not Around. The skit My Real Face has garnered over 6 million YouTube views.
Since then, Mark Angel’s comedy company has been growing and doing better. It became the first African comedy YouTube channel to hit over one million subscribers and currently boasts above 5.61 million subscribers.
Is Emmanuella Samuel Mark Angel’s daughter?
Seeing the onscreen understanding between Mark Angel and Emmanuella, many have wanted to know Emmanuella is the biological daughter of Mark Angel. While this would have likely given the comical duo more endearment, the answer is no.
Emmanuella is not the daughter of Mark Angel and he is not her father. However, she is his niece and they have always lived together since her birth. In the same interview with the Punch referred to above, Mark Angel saif of their relationship:
“No, she is not. She is my niece. She has lived with my family ever since she was born even though her parents are alive. We are a large family and we lived together in the past.”
He also commented on her obedience even at an early stage as the reason why he could cast her on his videos. Mark Angel said Emmanuella was always talented and showed a hint of comical character before she started acting. His words:
“When she was born, we realised she was capable of being influenced positively. She did everything she was told to do even though she was really young. Also, we realised that she was talented. We simply groomed her and introduced her to showbiz.”
Still talking about Emmanuella, Mark Angel revealed that like all children, it takes patience to work with them. He said that the crew helped her get her lines with special attention.
“We try to make her form a mental picture of whatever we want her to do,” he revealed. “She, in turn, interprets it the best way she understands it. Sometimes, we have to go through the process over and over again before accomplishing what we want. As a smart child, she asks why she is made to do a particular thing in a particular way and we explain to her.”
Mark Angel comedy style: ‘Freestyle comedy’
Around 2013 when Mark Angel started making his comedy series, skits were not a new invention. However, they were not also seen as a major style of delivering jokes. In the Nigerian comedy scene, stand-up comedy shows were by, a wide margin, more popular.
Back then, the industry was ruled by the likes of Bright Okpocha (Basketmouth), Ayo Makun (AY), Ali Baba and more. Even Mark Angel himself wrote jokes for comedians to perform and was paid between N100,000 to N300,000. Mark Angel saw a relatively virgin niche and swooped to conquer it, which he did resoundingly. He kept pushing out skits after skits from YouTube to Facebook and later to Instagram.
He mentioned that it was not easy in the beginning. But he was able to take advantage of the reach of social media services. He stated:
“It is difficult to promote your content through traditional media. The Internet is booming and I studied the market as well. I also noticed no marketer would want to market any content from an unknown producer. Also, it is cheaper and there are so many bloggers too. I still pay to put up my materials on blogs. God’s grace has been there for me too. [The] internet is the future of arts and entertainment.”
Mark Angel chooses to shoot his videos in lower-class and poor neighborhoods in Port Harcourt. This may be in reference to his humble beginnings and/or to make it appeal to the larger audience that can relate to such settings.
Also, the lines are mostly prerecorded and involve actors miming to the dialogue and delivering comical actions. His skits are short with the funniest parts coming nearly at the end of the video. His most-watched videos are those featuring child actors.
[bctt tweet=”Angel once said that he cannot really describe his style of comedy and calls it freestyle comedy.” username=”Sidomex”]
Mark Angel comedy reception
Initially, when Mark Angel began releasing his skits online, many people did not know about it. This may have been because comedy delivered on stage appealed more to many people or that people are not used to watching comedy via the internet.
However, following his initial success with Emmanuella, Mark Angel’s comedy is now widely known. It has given Emmanuella fame as well. In 2017 when his YouTube channel, Mark Angel Comedy, reached a million subscribers, YouTube awarded him a plaque reserved for the elite YouTubers who reached the mark. The channel has since surpassed this milestone and currently boasts of more than 5 million subscribers.
Videos on the channel also boast huge numbers, its most-watched video has over 24 million views.
Mark Angel: Net worth
Despite his successes, Mark Angel has not made it into the Forbes list, which is a trusted outlet to verify the net worth of celebrities. Without trusted successes, it is difficult to say how much the comedian is really worth. What we are left with are mostly speculations and wild guesses.
For example, Google Naija claims that Mark Angel is worth $1 million. But this is unverifiable as another blog, Celeb Trending Now, says the YouTube star is worth $112 million in 2020. Take these estimates with a healthy dose of salt. The sources presented no verifiable evidence to support their claims.
However, according to the website Social Blade, a statistics website that monitors social media usage and trends, the Mark Angel Comedy YouTube channel is estimated to make between $7.4K – $119.2K monthly or $89.4K – $1.4M. The actual YouTube earning will likely fall somewhere between the extremes. However, earnings outside the range – both lower and higher ends – are known to have occurred. However, it should be pointed out that these estimations are earning and not net worth. Mark Angel still has to pay his crew as well as other miscellaneous stuff that goes into making his skits.
However, Mark Angel is often invited to host events and as we have already noted, he also writes skits for other comedians as well. It is not unlikely that he may have other businesses as well, as is common with famous entertainers.
That is the closest we can come to estimating Mark Angel’s net worth. And as you can see, it is not nearly enough. The only thing we can say for sure is that Mark Angel is doing well for himself as a comedian.
Is Mark Angel married?
Mark Angel is not married so he does not have a wife. The comedian and YouTuber appears to be single since his career became public knowledge. While being a popular figure, Mark Angel maintains a very private lifestyle. He has not been caught on camera with a woman that turned out to be his girlfriend or anything of the sort.
He spends many of his outings with friends and his valuable sidekick, Emmanuella. For now, Mark Angel does not seem to have a wife and may not have a girlfriend either.
Final thoughts…
Mark Angel has come a long way from the struggling young man who was trying to get into the entertainment industry. Now, he runs a renowned comedy outfit and has amassed both wealth and fame for himself.
The comedian brought his own unique style and has been hugely successful. He maintains that his mother is his number one critic and approves or disapproves of his content.
Also, he employs a free-flowing style to his comedy both in the acting and the shooting locations as well. Mark Angel has now become a household name in the comedy business.
Comment:thank god for mark