Portal:African cinema/Selected birthdays/41

Isaac Nabwana (born. Nov 6, 1973), popularly known as Nabwana I.G.G., is a Ugandan film director, cinematographer, writer and producer.He is the founder of the film studio Wakaliwood, known for producing popular ultra-low budget action comedy films. He has been referred to as Uganda's Quentin Tarantino due to his use of over-the-top violence. Nabwana first started to gain wide international attention after uploading a trailer of Who Killed Captain Alex? on YouTube in 2010 followed by the entire film in 2015. The film has gained a cult status and has over 9.8 million views on YouTube.

Niyi Akinmolayan (born November 3, 1982) is a Nigerian filmmaker and director known for his work in both blockbuster and independent films. He is also the founder of Anthill Studios, a media production facility. He directed The Wedding Party 2 (2017) Chief Daddy (2018), Prophetess (2021), My Village People (2021), and The Set Up (2019), all among the highest-grossing Nigerian films of all time. His most recent film, Lisabi: The Uprising, is a 2024 Nigerian historical drama that was released on Netflix in September.

Thandiwe Newton (born 6 November 1972) is an award-winning British actress of Zimbabwean descent. Mostly known for her Hollywood roles in films and TV series such as Crash, Star Wars, ER and Westworld, Newton’s African filmography includes Half of a Yellow Sun, a 2013 Anglo-Nigerian drama film directed by Biyi Bandele and based on the novel of the same name by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She also was an executive producer of the animated-live action documentary film Liyana, which tells the story of five orphaned children in Swaziland who create an original tale about a girl named Liyana.

Oulaya Amamra (born 12 November 1996) is a French-Moroccan actress who first came to prominence in the 2016 films Divines and Tamara. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress and the Lumières Award for Best Female Revelation for Divines, a coming of age story directed by her older sister Houda Benyamina and which won Beynamina the Caméra d'O at Cannes. Among her most recent roles is in her sister's sophomore film, Toutes pour une (All for One) (2025) in which Amamra teams up again with her Divines co-star Déborah Lukumuena, to play one of three musketeers disguised as men in 1625 France.

Syndy Emade (born 21 November 1993) is a Cameroonian actress and producer. She made her acting debut in 2010 in the film Obsession by Achille Brice and in 2015 founded BLUE RAIN Entertainment, a production company whose film credits include the 2017 romantic comedy A Man For The Weekend featuring Nollywood star Alexx Ekubo, and one of the first Cameroonian films to stream on Netflix. Most recently she starred in the 2024 film When Wolves Cry, a pan-African advocacy drama on the perils of “fake news” that filmmed in Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo and Benin starring Francis Duru, Steve Eboh, Sydney Diala, Happy Julian, and Alex Nwankwa.