Amah T: Navigating Stardom and Studies

A Tribe Called Judah’s Up-and-coming actor speaks on balancing school and career

By Blessing Famose, Abimbola Adelakun and Faith Enang

Actor, student, vocalist, content creator, photographer, voice-over artist and presenter. These words qualify the all-rounder ThankGod Amah, popularly known as Amah T. The student of English education at the University of Lagos rose to fame and popularity upon discovering his acting talent. This talent got him starring in some highly-rated movies, including the recent and recording-breaking A Tribe Called Judah. His story proves that being a student doesn’t stop one from achieving greatness.

Amah T is certain the art of acting chose him, and he was born with it. He described acting as “A call I answered. Acting is the becoming of an identity! A good actor humbles himself for the character to be exalted, and a good actor is a good listener”. In a way, this chosen path almost fulfilled his parents’ dream, as they’d always wanted to go into acting but couldn’t because of some constraints. The pride and joy his parents show towards his career is one of the many joys he finds on his journey. He likened the feeling to “…finishing a race for a generation.” 

Growing up in the ghetto-like environment of Iba in Ojo, Lagos state, with his large family of 8 added to his colourful acting background. At some point in his life, he lived on the same street as a very popular actress and looked up to the moment he would join them.

His acting career can be said to have taken off right from his childhood during his participation in his Church’s children’s drama team. He said the drama team was handled very professionally as they would a top production or stage play. The skills and zeal he learned from this team would follow him, leading him to greater heights. From there, he moved on to the FECA drama team, Illumination Theater in LASU and now Unilag’s production.

All-in-all, Amah T has been acting for almost 14 years but only started acting professionally on screen and on stage sometime around 2019, where he directed and acted in many successful productions like Lipstick Fever, Our Husband has gone mad again, Daughters of Elempe, amongst others. He directed ‘Across the Strait.’ He also acted in the ROK TV series; Waka Pass in the same 2019. The award-winning actor also graduated from the EbonyLife Creative Academy in January of 2024.

It is no longer news that he played ‘Femi’, a store clerk in the 1 billion naira record-breaking production, A Tribe Called Judah. He disclosed that getting the role was by chance as he was in a casting group where a call was made for auditions. He ironically auditioned for a lesser, non-speaking role but was cast to play the hilarious clerk.

However, it is not to be forgotten that the fast-rising thespian is also a student and has academics to contend with. He reminisced that upon his admission into Unilag, his initial plan was just to focus on classes, hostel and church. 

“I just needed that triangle, class, church, school. But I realized that if you wait till you’re done schooling to start your life, you will meet life at the point where it’ll choke you and then find yourself looking for a job when you could easily create the job from your schooling.” 

Furthermore, he divulged the secret to balancing all areas of his life as Time management. “I know when to go to class, I know when to do my assignments. I know when to read my books, I just make sure it does not affect my other kind of life.” He also recognised that what makes it much easier is the similarities between his course of study and his creative life. “So I’m studying English. In English, we have a project on writing scripts, acting and stuff. It’s just related, so I’m still in the same field while I’m studying something in the same field.” 

He emphasized that he knew when to step in and attend to academics. Whenever there were lags of any sort, he tackled it immediately to avoid it piling up. He also attributed the work of God and the Holy Spirit, ordering his steps and giving him wisdom to plan.

He advises students who intend to go into acting to “…seek God’s guidance. Manage your timing so it won’t affect your education and work more on your craft, especially on your waiting period and to look out for opportunities. When you see greatness, all you have to do is collaborate, you don’t compete.” 

His achievements, however, would not end here as he has many other works in the pipeline to look out for, including an Inkblot project where he once again acted among stars. We look forward to him conquering the acting world and his academic path.