Erica was one of the most popular contestants in the Big Brother Naija Season 5, Lockdown edition show. The actress, whose full name is Ngozi Erica Nlewedim first caught the eyes of viewers for her captivating smile and exceptional beauty. However, she was disqualified from the show after she received her third strike for flouting the rules.
This biography about Erica will reveal previously unknown facts about her and answer all the questions that you might have concerning her. In this article, you will read about her early childhood and her education. Also, you will learn about what she was doing before she entered the Big Brother house. In addition, we will detail her journey in the house down to her ‘inglorious’ exit.
Additionally, see the latest on Erica BBNaija news since the show ended. In the next section, we provide a summary of the most important facts about her that everyone must know.
10 important facts about Erica BBNaija
- She was born on 13th March 1994 in Abia State, Nigeria, and her birth name is Ngozi Erica Nlewedim.
- She is an only child and grew up with her mother who raised her alone.
- In 2013, Erica obtained her first degree from Covenant University in Business Administration.
- She took part in the 2014 Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MGBN) pageant and she won the Most Photogenic award at the pageant.
- She has worked as a model for popular brands like Access Bank, Diamond Bank, Etisalat (now called 9mobile), Hollandia, Globacom, Jumia, Peak Milk and Stanbic IBTC. Alsio, she is also an entrepreneur and she runs a company named Beluxia Global Links.
- Nlewedim is an actress and studied screen acting at the Met Film School, London where she completed her acting course in 2020 before returning to Nigeria.
- As an actress, she made her acting debut on the TV series Secrets and Scandals in 2015.
- Erica has starred in many Nigerian films including Made in Heaven and Hire a Woman.
- She won the Head of House games in the third week of the Big Brother Naija Season 5 reality TV show.
- During Big Brother Naija Season 5, Erica was the only housemate disqualified from the show.
Also read: Laycon Biography: Early life, education, music, BBNaija & more
Early life and education
How old is Erica BBNaija?
Erica was born on 13th March 1994 in Abia State, Nigeria, so she is 26 years old on her 2020 birthday, the same year she appeared on Big Brother Naija season 5. Her birth name is Ngozi Erica Nlewedim. She is an Igbo lady and professes to be a Christian. Her father’s name is Eric Christian Nlewedim while her mother’s name is Oby Nwokolo.
According to online sources, Nlewedim is an only child and she grew up with her mother who raised her alone. In fact, Every Where blog claims she has seen her father only once and that he was not involved in her upbringing.
After her birth, she and her mother moved to Lagos State. While there, she started her primary school education and eventually enrolled at Victory Grammar School for her secondary school education. She, however, did not complete her secondary education from this school. Instead, Erica went on to Command Secondary School in Ikeja to obtain her Senior Secondary School certificate. She eventually completed all her exams and passed with flying colours.
To further her education to the university level, Nlewedim applied for admission at Covenant University.
She finally got admitted during 2009/2010 to study business administration at the private institution. In 2013, she obtained her first degree in business administration from Covenant University.
Later, in 2019, Erica travelled to the United Kingdom to study screen acting at the Met Film School, London. She completed her acting course in 2020 before returning to Nigeria.
Career
To write about the career of Ngozi Erica Nlewedim or just Erica as many people know her, we will separate this section into different parts. We start with her career as a model.
Erica as a model
Nlewedim is a model and has done modelling gigs for many top brands in Nigeria and other countries. Among her clients were Access Bank, Diamond Bank, Etisalat (now called 9mobile), Hollandia, Globacom, Jumia, Peak Milk, Stanbic IBTC and Zaron Cosmetics.
She had also contested in beauty pageants, the most notable being the 2014 Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MGBN) pageant. While she had not won the pageant, she had finished among the top 10. Additionally, she won the Miss Photogenic award at the pageant.
Now we take a look at her impressive career in the film and television industry.
You may also like: Big Brother Naija: This was life before BBNaija for Laycon, Nengi, Erica, and other Big Brother Naija housemates [photos]
Erica’s acting career
In 2015, she made her acting debut on the set of Nigerian TV series, Secrets and Scandals. She played a major role on the show. Also, she appeared on the Flatmates TV series.
One of her most notable Nollywood films to date is Hire a Woman. Hire a Woman is a 2019 Nigerian romantic comedy film directed by Chinneylove Eze and Ifeanyi Ikpoenyi.
While superstars like Nancy Isime, Fredrick Leonard and Alex Ekubo were lead characters, Erica also got some screen time. She was credited on the film’s cast as Erica Nlewedim. Other ex-BBNaija housemates like Ifu Ennada and Olawunmi Bamikewere also on the cast.
You can watch the film here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijQ1FOsnlGM
Erica also starred in the 2019 film titled Made in Heaven along with Richard Mofe-Damijo, Ayo Makun, Toyin Abraham, Jide Kosoko, Nancy Isime, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Jay Franklin Jituboh and several others.
During her pre-Big Brother Naija interview with African Magic, she says that one of her greatest achievements was producing her first short film, Mercy Mercy, with a team in Birmingham.
She has always loved acting and it was her desire to get better at it that made her travel to the UK to study at the Met Film School as mentioned above. Nlewedim says that she has not really achieved her dream in the film industry.
In her words, she says; “My dream role would be to be the main character in an action film. I have always loved female action stars like Angelina Jolie and Charlize Theron and dreamed of acting like them. I’m currently training myself to be ready whenever that role presents itself.”
… in the corporate world
It is not all about glamour and showbiz for Erica as she revealed that she had also once worked in the corporate world, albeit for a short time. This happened at one point after she obtained her degree in business administration.
Her mother had advised her to look for a job instead of waiting for a big break in the entertainment industry. Nlewedim went to look for a job and got one as a marketing manager at MEI Oil and Gas. However, when her mother saw allegedly meagre salary, she stopped disturbing her, allowing her to pursue her passion instead.
… as an entrepreneur
Before going into the BBNaija House, Erica started a company named Beluxia Global Links. We could not find out what the company specialises in after we searched for it online. However, sources say that her mother Mrs Oby Nwokolo runs the business for her when she has other duties.
Now, we take a look at how Erica has been faring inside the Big Brother Naija (or BBNaija) House.
Erica BBNaija 2020
As we revealed in the opening section of this biography, Erica became one of the most popular BBNaija housemates contesting for the NGN85 million grand prize. During the TV reality show, Erica, Kiddwaya, and Laycon also became involved in a sort of love triangle.
Kiddwaya and Erica
She and Kiddwaya have been engaged in romantic activities such as kissing, smooching and ‘under the duvet activities’. However, she says she is only mentally attracted to Laycon.
Additionally, she won the Head of House games on 10th August 2020 which saved her from being up for eviction for that week. She picked Kiddwaya as her deputy which clearly showed that she liked him more than Laycon.
On 12th August 2020, she and fellow contestant Praise won the OPPO challenge which comes with a cash prize of NGN500,000.
It’s clear that the actress was been doing very well inside the Big Brother Naija 2020 Season 5 House during her stay. Meanwhile, she and some of the female housemates in the BBNaija house have not gotten along well. She had quarrelled with at least two of them.
For more on this, you can read Erica and Wathoni fight dirty over Kiddwaya and Erica BBNaija fight with Lucy get Nigerians talking
Yet, her fan base outside the Big Brother Naija kept growing. They called themselves ‘Elites’. Nlewedim became a strong contender for the grand prize and even won the Head of House (HOH) games for the second time. This gave her immunity for the week of 1st September 2020.
However, it was during this period that she slipped up and was eventually disqualified from the BBNaija Lockdown show.
Erica disqualification
On 6th September 2020, Biggie announced that Erica Nweledim was disqualified from the Big Brother Naija show. Let us look at a summary of what led to her disqualification.
After the Saturday night party, Erica had gotten into a dispute with Laycon. She mentioned that he had been lying to housemates about her and that he was always trying to use her name to trend. Eventually, she let her guard down and started making death threats and other hurtful remarks about Laycon.
She also prevented her deputy head of house, Prince, from sleeping in the Head of house lounge by wetting the bed. Thus, the very next day, Big Brother gathered the housemates together and after outlining her offences, she was disqualified for receiving her third and final strike.
Prior to the incident, she had gotten two strikes for other offences. One of them was whispering to Kiddwaya when they were about to nominate other housemates. The other strike was for flipping Big Brother off when she and Kiddwaya were in the HOH lounge.
After her disqualification, Nweledim remained relevant and was a regular feature on Twitter trends almost daily. Her disqualification also had a ripple effect. Besides the early reactions from her disgruntled fans, there were also some gains for her. For example, her fans, Elites, started a GoFundMe for her and on 17th September 2020, the handlers said the fund had reached $36,000 (NGN16.2 million).
Internet sensation and crossdresser, Bobrisky also promised to gift her a sum of NGN1 million and fulfilled the promise on 18th September 2020, even promising her a Dubai trip. She also had a video chat with popular Nigerian journalist and businessman, Dele Momodu.
Erica BBN Biography: Personal life
Nlewedim is not married and according to her interviews, she was not engaged in any serious relationship with anyone before she entered the BBNaija competition.
However, it seems that things are getting more serious between her and Kiddwaya. In fact, Kiddwaya said that he plans to continue his relationship with her outside the house. This depends on if she wants the same thing as well.
His father, Terry Waya, had even hinted at his acceptance of the actress in an interview with Dele Momodu where he mentioned that they will have two lavish wedding ceremonies.
Relationship with Kiddwaya outside the BBNaija house
Latest news on Erica and Kiddwaya
Kidd mentioned after his eviction that while his feelings for fellow housemate Nengi were ‘pure friendship’, Erica was ‘more than a friend’ to him. On the other hand, Nlewedim revealed that he was still her ‘friend’ outside the BBNaija house and that she was attracted to him.
Soon, they began to be spotted in public together, going on dates and showering social media with pictures of themselves. They also engaged in one playful Twitter spat that got BBNaija Twitter fans reacting with excitement.
However, towards the end of the year, there were rumours that Erica BBNaija and Terseer Kiddwaya have broken up. Inquisitive fans discovered that both reality show stars had unfollowed each other on Instagram. There is no reason given for this action and neither of them has confirmed the breakup as well.
Yet, it is notable that she and Kiddwaya have not been spotted in public together.
Final thoughts …
As we have seen from the biography of Ngozi Erica Nlewedim, she was already making a name for herself even before the BBNaija show. Now, she has gotten even more popular. This is expected to give her acting career a massive boost once the show ends.
Nlewedim was one of the favourites to win the BBNaija Season 5, however, her journey ended untimely with her disqualification. Yet, she cannot be said to have totally lost. She has found fame and also made monetary games both on and off the show. We look forward to what next project she will undertake.
Additional Erica information
A selected list of Erica Nlewedim movies and TV series
- Secrets and Scandals (2015)
- Once Upon a Night (2015-2018)
- Poka Messiah (2015)
- My Flatmates (2017)
- The Paternity Deal (2017)
- Fractured (2018)
- Dead Rites (2018)
- Being Farouk (2018)
- Hire a Woman (2019)
- Made in Heaven (2019)
- Royal Castle (2019)
- Win or Lose (2019)
- Love, Food, and Everything in between (2019)
- Four Better or Worse (2019)
- Mercy Mercy (as a producer) (2020)
11 thoughts on “Erica Nlewedim Biography: Early life, education, BBNaija, facts and personal life”