Veteran Nigerian actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has reignited conversations about Nollywood’s pay structure after revealing that she still receives residuals and royalties from her relatively brief work in Hollywood, despite spending three decades in Nollywood and appearing in more than 300 projects without receiving similar payments.
Omotola, who has worked in Hollywood for about five years, said she regularly receives envelopes containing residual and royalty payments from her work there.
“I’ve only worked in Hollywood for five years, yet I constantly receive envelopes containing my residuals and royalties. I’ve worked in Nollywood for 30 years and have never received a single envelope. Maybe they don’t know where I live,” she said.
Her latest comment echoes concerns she raised publicly in 2025, when she contrasted more than 30 years and over 310 projects in Nollywood with only two test projects in Hollywood. She said the Hollywood projects continued to generate monthly residual payments, while her extensive Nollywood filmography had produced none.
The issue highlights a fundamental difference between being paid for a job and continuing to earn from the value of one’s work.
Residuals are payments made to performers when films or television productions are reused or distributed through qualifying platforms and markets. Royalties can also arise from contractual arrangements that allow creators or performers to receive continuing payments from the commercial exploitation of their work.
For an industry that has produced hundreds of films and built a global audience, Omotola’s experience raises uncomfortable questions about how Nollywood contracts are structured, who owns film rights, and whether actors have adequate mechanisms to benefit from productions that continue to generate revenue long after their original release.
It is also a conversation about legacy.
An actor can spend decades building characters, drawing audiences and helping to establish an industry, yet receive little or nothing when those productions continue to circulate.
Omotola’s complaint, therefore, goes beyond one actress asking where her envelopes are.
It is a call for structure, transparency and a compensation system that recognises that an actor’s contribution does not necessarily end when filming stops.
As Nollywood continues to expand globally, the question is becoming harder to ignore: Should actors be paid only for the day they work, or should they continue to benefit from the value their work creates?
For Omotola, after 30 years in Nollywood, the answer appears clear.
