Actress Kate Henshaw Full Biography, Life And Career.
|FULL NAME: Kate Henshaw
DATE OF BIRTH: July 19, 1971
OCCUPATION: Actress
MARITAL STATUS: Married
INTRODUCTION
Kate Henshaw is a very popular Nigerian actress who has been in the movie industry for quite a very long time, she is sure a multi award winning actress with a massive fan base. She shows mostly in Nollywood home videos and soap operas. She is an actress with various endorsements, she is also known to be a politician.
EARLY LIFE AND BACKGROUND
Kate Henshaw was born in Calabar,Cross River State of Nigeria to the family of four being the eldest of her siblings. She spent her early years of life in Lagos, Lagos State where she attended primary school education but later traveled back to Calabar, Cross River State where she attended her Secondary school education. She spent a year in University of Calabar (UNICAL) where she did her remedial studies before proceeding to University of Lagos where she read Microbiology at the School of Medical Lab science, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). She later worked on Bauchi State General Hospital after graduation.
Speaking about her early complications in an interview:
It’s just few years ago that I started doing it professionally; when I started it was just a case of trying to see what it will bring out for me. The late JT Tom West, I will always be grateful to him for taking me to my first audition. After my first movie, different people started coming with different jobs and I was like ‘Yeah, money is coming.’…
It was hard. I was scared. The script was as thick as a bible. I was with Franca Brown, Bob Manuel, the late Funmi Martins, and Sandra Achums. I didn’t think I could do it, but they were all so nice. That was when we really treasured doing movies properly, we paid attention to detail, countless rehearsals. I remember spending a lot of time with Bob Manuel, people thought we were going out….
CAREER AND LIFE
Her Passion for acting led her to abandon her job as a Microbiologist and to apply for auditioning, in 1993, she invited for an audition where she was accepted and was handed a role in a movie called When the Sun Sets, this happened to be her first role in a Nollywood movie which opened door for a rather successful Nigerian Movie career as she has been involved in many Nigerian Movies and have been a house hold name today in Nollywood.
In 2008, she won her first major movie award – African Movie Academy Award as the ‘Best Actress in a Leading role’ through her role in a great Nollywood film – Stronger than Pain. As a result of her huge contribution in Nigerian Home Movie – Nollywood, she was appointed alongside Dan Foster and Yibo Koko as the judges in Nigeria Got Talent, a Nigerian
reality talent show which is part of the Got Talent franchise. It was launched in 2012 on television stations AIT and NTA.
Kate Henshaw is a ‘hard woman’ in most of her movies and have been know to portray mostly the role of and ‘iron lady’. One of the movies in ‘Stronger than Pain’, one of her best movies where she acted as Eringa, an abusive wife to her husband who happen to be Nkem Owoh. You can watch the movie review below
Her role is aided by her natural fitness and agility, eluding her age.
Speaking on difficulties faced in the industry:
Having spent almost two decades in the industry, what would you say are the challenges faced by players in the industry?
Money. Lack of cohesion between guilds and associations. Inability to use certain structures to be able to shoot our films; for instance, getting the airport is not easy, and other places, they charge. We pay taxes as citizens of this country, and as film makers, we should have a deduction or access to places. While Dora was the Information minister, she complained we were portraying the police in the bad light, wearing slippers and all, but when they did not give us the needed thing, what were we to do? They need to give us the right support to achieve this….
MARRIAGE
Speaks on her divorce in an interview with Net news paper, Excerpts below:
Tell us more about your former marriage. How were you able to deal with it?
It’s God. He makes things beautiful in His own time. The slightest bit of strength is all is needed to rise up. People have died in marriages, some have lost body parts while in it, and others have spent years in it. It all depends on individual, it’s just to make the most of every situation and move on. I have so much that I want to do. I have no time to be wallowing in self pity. Marriage does not define who I am, neither does it define anybody. I came into this world as an individual, two people meet and decide to make it work but if it doesn’t, let it go. I wish you well, you do same, especially when there are children involved, because they are the worst hit. My plan now is to ensure that my daughter has the best in life, no matter what.
Why did you break up?
It wasn’t working anymore. It’s good to leave, rather than continue to manage it and live in strife and rancour. A lot of Nigerian women have recently shared their stories of physical violence in the hands of their husbands.
Did you experience this?
No, not at all.
What then was the cause of the break up?
Personal.
Any regrets?
No regrets at all. My daughter came out of it and she is the most beautiful thing ever….
Political Ambition
Earlier in year 2015 the actress contested for the House Representatives position in her constituency but sadly failed in the PDP Primary Election.
2015 Burnt Lekki Home Controversy
On June 25 2015 the star actress suffered some property loss after her Lekki home caught fire and burnt almost everything in the house.
house got burnt and I lost everything. I really don’t know what happened
because I was here on the ‘Do Good’ set, I was filming, and was about
to have lunch when my nanny called me and was like “madam fire”. I told
her to get people to throw water on it and didn’t even know it was like a
big fire. I immediately got up and by the time I turned into the street
before mine, I could see the sky was black. I got there and there were
people everywhere and nobody could get in. Because the first thing about
fire is the smoke, its going to make it totally impossible to get in,
and it could kill you. And my next door neighbour was having his
daughter’s birthday and there were children there, that was IK Osakioduwa, he happens to be my next door neighbour, and he had sent a message to all radio stations about the fire” narrated the veteran actress.
called the fire service for over 2 hours and there was no response, by
the time they came everything had gone. The house was razed completely.
But I am talking to you now, and I am glad to be alive. Winning this
award further goes to show that as long as there is life, you can hope
for tomorrow” said Kate Henshaw.
Henshaw picked up the City People Face of Nollywood awards. The actress
is now upbeat and reflected on what the incident has taught her.
are two choices, either you stand up or you stay down. There are many
people who have gone through such fire experience and lost their lives
but there is no scratch on me, the will power is what matters. I was at
that point where I said what’s the use, where I am going to start from
but I thank God.“
on this set, they are the best crew and cast I have ever worked with,
everybody came they scooped water from the gutter, some cut their hands
trying to get in. They came the next day and helped me move. It was
totally unexpected, I don’t want to cry but they were awesome” she said.
Later in December 2015, the popular actress was appointed by the governor of her state to be his special adviser.
AWARDS AND ENDORSEMENTS
Has won numerous awards since career lauch.
Few includes: Africa Movie Academy Award, City People awards, ZAFAA awards, AMCVA and many more…
ENDORSEMENTS
Once bagged a multimillion naira deal with glo in 2010
Another with Samsung mobile, Another with Onga and more..
CONTROVERSIES
Not too much controversy as a personality
Kate’s 2015 campaign poster |
Kate and Ex husband |
SOURCES: celebrityng.com, thenet.ng, pulse.ng, www.takemetonaija.com