Funke Akindele just revealed who her role model is, and it’s not who you may mention at first guess. Not a Nigerian director. Not another Nollywood veteran she came up under. It’s Tyler Perry; the American actor-director-writer-producer-everything guy who built his own studio from the ground up and has been running it like a one-man factory for two decades.
And honestly? Once you sit with it, it stops being surprising and starts being obvious.
Tyler Perry didn’t wait for anybody to open a door for him. He wrote his own plays, acted in them, produced them, sold tickets out of the trunk of his car if he had to, and eventually turned that hustle into an entire studio in Atlanta that he owns outright.
Funke Akindele never went to film school either. Everything she knows about writing a scene, she picked up from watching people who already knew how to do it, Tyler Perry chief among them…and look at where that’s landed her. Multiple box office records, a production company that runs like a machine, and a name that gets people into cinema seats.
Here’s What Funke Akindele Learnt From Watching Tyler Perry:
- Screenwriting
Funke didn’t sit in a classroom breaking down a three-act structure. She watched Tyler Perry’s films the way you’d watch a masterclass you didn’t know you were enrolled in, paying attention to when a scene should stretch and when it should cut, when comedy should sit next to grief and whatnot. That instinct is all over her films. You can tell that’s a Tyler Perry move she clearly clocked early.
- Wearing Multiple Hats (At Once)
One thing that separates Tyler Perry from many filmmakers is that he rarely limits himself to one role. He’s written scripts, directed films, acted in them, produced them and built the infrastructure needed to distribute them.
Funke Akindele has followed a similar path. What began as an acting career has evolved into something much bigger. Today, she’s an actor, writer, producer and director. More importantly, she’s good at all four and truly understands the value of creative control.
- The Consistency At Being Good
One good film gets you a moment. What Tyler Perry has is a machine, project after project, hitting the same audience on a schedule they can set their watch to. Funke Akindele has done exactly that.
Every film is usually talk-of-town and she never stops breaking records. Battle on Buka Street became Nollywood’s highest-grossing film at the time. Then A Tribe Called Judah showed up and became the first Nollywood film to cross ₦1 billion. Everybody Loves Jenifa came right after and took the crown for highest-grossing film in West Africa. And just when you think she’s peaked, Behind The Scenes crosses ₦2.7 billion, making her the first Nollywood filmmaker to blow past both the ₦2 billion and ₦2.7 billion marks.
- Understanding What The Audience Wants To Watch
This may be the biggest lesson of all.
Tyler Perry became successful because he stopped trying to make films for everybody. Instead, he focused on audiences whose stories were often overlooked by mainstream Hollywood.
Funke Akindele has mastered a Nigerian version of that strategy.
She understands the kinds of stories her audience enjoys. She knows the humour that lands. She knows the family dynamics that spark conversation. She knows when to lean into drama and when to release tension with comedy.
Put it all together and the takeaway isn’t “Funke Akindele has a role model”, it’s that she studied that role model properly, took the parts that actually worked, and rebuilt them for a completely different market. Today, Funke Akindele is a big force in the movie industry.
