Before Gangs of Lagos reached international audiences and Amazon Prime Video came calling, Jade Osiberu was a computer systems engineer trying to find her place in the world of storytelling. Her career had begun in software development, and her professional future could easily have followed the conventional path her education had prepared her for. But an opportunity at a Nigerian bank introduced her to a different kind of work, one that would eventually lead her into filmmaking.
Today, Osiberu is a Nigerian writer, director and producer whose work includes Isoken, Sugar Rush, Brotherhood and Gangs of Lagos. Her production company, Greoh Studios, secured a three-year deal with Amazon Prime Video in 2022 to develop and produce original films and scripted series, marking a significant milestone in her career.
But before the streaming deals, international recognition and blockbuster releases, Osiberu was a young professional learning how to turn her interest in storytelling into a career. She had no guarantee that the opportunity she found at Ndani TV would lead to a future in filmmaking, much less that she would eventually build a production company of her own.
A Different Kind of Career
Osiberu was born into a royal family in Ogun State and grew up with an interest in the arts. Yet her education took her in a different direction. She studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom before returning to Nigeria and beginning her professional career as a software developer. Engineering gave her a technical foundation, but her eventual move into filmmaking would take her somewhere less predictable.
After transitioning into digital marketing at Guaranty Trust Bank, now GTCO, Osiberu became involved in the bank’s efforts to explore new ways of reaching audiences. During strategy discussions about the company’s brand and digital presence, an idea emerged that would change the course of her career: Ndani TV, an online video platform created to develop original content.
Osiberu was given the opportunity to run the platform. What followed was an introduction to a world far removed from software development. She began working across the creative process, developing content and gaining practical experience in writing, producing and directing.
The opportunity did more than introduce her to a new industry. It gave her room to discover what she could do within it. Rather than approaching filmmaking solely as an interest outside her professional life, she began learning how to turn stories into actual productions. It was a significant shift, even if its eventual implications were not yet clear. She had entered the corporate world with an engineering degree, but the experience she was gathering at Ndani TV was preparing her for a different future.
Finding Her Voice at Ndani TV
One of the projects that emerged from Osiberu’s work at Ndani TV was Gidi Up, a web series she wrote, produced and directed. Following young Lagosians navigating ambition, relationships and the pressures of city life, the series connected with an audience of young Nigerians and became a popular example of the possibilities of online storytelling. At a time when digital video was still developing as a platform for original Nigerian entertainment, Gidi Up helped establish Osiberu’s reputation as a creative talent with an understanding of contemporary urban life.
The series also gave her something that would prove valuable beyond its audience: experience. She was learning to bring a project from an idea to the screen, work with other creatives and understand what it took to produce content for viewers.
Her time at Ndani TV became an important part of her professional development. She had found an entry point into an industry she had not formally trained for, and she was using it to build the skills and relationships that would later support her independent work. But gaining experience within an established institution and building a career independently were two different things.
Leaving the Security of a Job
In 2017, Osiberu established her own production company and released Isoken, a romantic comedy she wrote and directed. The decision to build independently meant taking the experience she had gathered in a corporate environment and applying it to a business of her own.
Isoken offered an opportunity to test that ambition. The film follows a successful unmarried woman in her thirties navigating family expectations, romantic relationships and the pressure to meet society’s expectations of womanhood. The film was commercially successful and earned Osiberu the Best Director award at the 2018 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.
It was an important milestone, establishing her as a filmmaker capable of moving beyond web content and delivering a successful feature film. More importantly, Isoken helped demonstrate the kind of stories Osiberu wanted to tell: commercially accessible films that could entertain audiences while engaging with questions about relationships, culture and society. Her career was beginning to take shape.
Building Beyond the First Success
Osiberu continued to expand her body of work with films including Sugar Rush and Brotherhood, demonstrating an interest in stories that moved beyond romantic comedy into action, crime and social commentary.
In September 2022, Greoh Studios secured a three-year deal with Amazon Prime Video to develop and produce original films and scripted series. The agreement was a significant step for Osiberu, giving her company an opportunity to develop more ambitious projects for an international streaming audience.
One of the most visible results was Gangs of Lagos, released on Amazon Prime Video in April 2023 and promoted as the platform’s first African original film. Set in Isale Eko, the crime drama explores organised violence, political influence and the lives of people growing up within systems shaped by inequality and competing interests.
The film brought Osiberu’s work to a wider international audience. It also reinforced her interest in using popular storytelling to examine aspects of Nigerian life that are often overlooked or presented in more glamorous terms.
The partnership represented more than an opportunity to distribute a film internationally. It offered Greoh Studios a platform for developing stories on a larger scale, taking Osiberu another step towards the ambition of telling African stories for audiences around the world.
From an Unexpected Opportunity to a Career of Her Own
Osiberu’s journey is a reminder that careers do not always develop in the order people expect. Her engineering education did not lead to a lifelong career in software development. Instead, an opportunity within a bank’s digital media initiative introduced her to filmmaking, and she used that experience to develop the skills and relationships that would support her independent work.
Her progress was not built on a single film or one decisive moment. It came through the years spent developing content at Ndani TV, the experience of making Gidi Up, the success of Isoken and the continued work of building a production company capable of taking on increasingly ambitious projects.
Before the international streaming partnership, Jade Osiberu was a young professional discovering that her career could take a different direction from the one her degree had prepared her for. She found an opportunity, learnt a new industry and eventually took the risk of building something of her own.
Before she became the filmmaker behind Gangs of Lagos, she was building the experience, confidence and creative vision that would make the film possible. Her journey shows that sometimes the first step towards a different future is not having the entire path figured out. It is recognising an opportunity, making the most of it and being willing to see where it leads.
