Theo Ukpaa

Theo Ukpaa (born May 30) is a Nigerian film director and producer for stage and television.

Early life and education Ukpaa, born in Surulere, Lagos, was raised in both Lagos and Los Angeles. He is the child of Capt. Herbert Ukpaa and Beatrice Ukpaa. His father, a sailor, died in 1998. In 2005, Ukpaa graduated with first-class honors in Economics from the University of Benin. He then pursued his Master of Business Administration (MBA) on a full scholarship at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. During his time in the United States, Ukpaa enrolled to study filmmaking at the New York Film Academy. He also has a Diploma in Contract Law from the esteemed Harvard University.

Career Ukpaa started his career at 16 years of age by learning stage production, and at some point was mentored in stage theatre by Wole Oguntokun and Rogers Ofime. He was taught screenplay writing by the veteran late filmmaker Amaka Igwe, who doubled as being one of two people who inspired him to get into stage theatre in the first place with her indigenous language feature film "Ahanna", as well as Tunde Kelani with "Ti Oluwa Nile".

As a TV director, he has worked with Soundcity TV, Spice TV and Trace Urban, Linda Ikeji TV. In an interview with This Day, he credited Tajuddeen Adepetu and Sam Onyemelukwe for giving him the links to these opportunities.

His movie The Hunter was exclusively premiered at the by Africa Magic. His movie Lagos Landing was released in collaboration with Alliance française. He is the Chief operating officer (COO) of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF),

He was named among the Top by directors by African Culture Magazine in 2020.

Controversy Ukpaa was accused of rape by TV personality Emilia Samuel. The incident was alleged to have occurred for the first time when he was still working with Spice TV and she came as a contestant for a pageant organized by the TV station in 2008. He denied the incident and no charges were filed, although his employer offered to foot the legal bills if the victim wanted to press charges. This accusation led to his sacking by Linda Ikeji as Head of programmes from Linda Ikeji TV.

Filmography Experience Marathon (short) 2015 MTN Space (short) 2015 MTN Callertunes (short) 2016 Run 2017 Landing Lagos 2018 My Name Is Not Olosho 2019 The Call Girl 2021 Enitan (short) 2022 Third Party 2022 The Hunter 2023 Haywire 2023