Chukwuebuka Obi-Uchendu (born 14 July 1982) is a Nigerian

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and media personality from

Okija Okija is the largest town in Ihiala LGA of Anambra State in Southeast Nigeria. The town is the oldest of all the towns in Ihiala local government area, and one of the biggest towns in Igboland. The people of Okija are predominantly Christians. Okij ...

Anambra State Anambra State is a Nigerian state, located in the southeastern region of the country. The state was created on August 27, 1991. Anambra state is bounded by Delta State to the west, Imo State to the south, Enugu State to the east and Kogi State ...

, Nigeria. He is known for hosting the reality show ''

Big Brother Naija ''Big Brother Naija'', formerly known as ''Big Brother Nigeria'', is a Nigerian reality competition television series, based on the Big Brother television franchise, in which, contestants live in an isolated house and compete for a large cash pr ...

'', the long running ''Rubbin' Minds'' talk show on

Channels TV Channels Television is a Nigerian independent 24-hour news and media television channel based in Lagos, Nigeria. The parent company, Channels Incorporated, was founded in 1992, a year before the Nigerian government deregulated the broadcast medi ...

as well as co-hosting ''The Spot'' and ''Men's Corner'' on Ebonylife television. He is an ambassador for

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrelat ...

Nigeria,

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

Nigeria, PorkMoney, and 2Sure Nigeria. Obi-Uchendu has received several award nominations and won the award for Outstanding TV Presenter of the Year at the

Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards are presented annually to recognize excellence of professionals in the African/Nigerian broadcast Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass ...

for his work on ''Rubbin' Minds''.

Early life and education

Born in

Benin City Benin City is the capital and largest city of Edo State, Edo State, Nigeria. It is the fourth-largest city in Nigeria according to the 2006 census, after Lagos, Kano (city), Kano, and Ibadan, with a population estimate of about 3,500,000 as of ...

Edo State Edo, commonly known as Edo State, is a state located in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria. As of 2006 National population census, the state was ranked as the 24th populated state (3,233,366) in Nigeria, However there was controversy ...

to a

banker A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

father and a mother who is a nurse, he is the third of four children with an elder sister as well as one older brother, and a younger brother. He went through with his nursery and primary education in the mid-western Nigerian city of Benin, remarkably passing the

Common Entrance Examination Common Entrance Examinations (commonly known as CE) are taken by independent school pupils in the UK as part of the selective admissions process at age 13, though ten independent schools do select at 11 using different test papers. They are se ...

into secondary school from Primary Four. He subsequently moved to the capital city of

Abuja Abuja () is the capital and eighth most populous city of Nigeria. Situated at the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), it is a planned city built mainly in the 1980s based on a master plan by International Plann ...

with his family. He had his

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

at Christ The King College Abuja, graduating in 1997, before getting his university education at the

University of Abuja The University of Abuja is a tertiary institution in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. It was established in January 1988 (under Decree No. 110 of 1992 as amended) as a dual-mode university with the mandate to run conventional and distance learning ...

, up until 2004. He proceeded to the

Nigerian Law School The Nigerian Law School is an educational institution set up by the Government of Nigeria in 1962 to provide a Nigerian legal education to foreign-trained lawyers, and to provide practical training for aspiring Legal Practitioners in Nigeria. ...

Bwari, Abuja finishing in 2005 he then returned to school after a 5-year working gap, graduating in December 2010 from the

Washington College of Law The American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL or WCL) is the law school of American University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C. It is located on the western side of Tenley Circle in the Tenleyto ...

of the

American University The American University (AU or American) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. Its main campus spans 90 acres (36 ha) on Ward Circle, mostly in the Spring Valley neighborhood of Northwest D.C. AU was charte ...

Washington D.C., with

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mos ...

degree specializations in Intellectual Property as well as

Communications law Communications law refers to the regulation of electronic communications by wire or radio. It encompasses regulations governing broadcasting, telephone and telecommunications service, cable television, satellite communications, wireless telecommu ...

from the Law and Government program.

Career

''Big Brother'' and beyond

In 2006, he went in as one of an eventual 14 housemates on the first season of the popular reality show

Big Brother Nigeria ''Big Brother Naija'', formerly known as ''Big Brother Nigeria'', is a Nigerian reality competition television series, based on the Big Brother television franchise, in which, contestants live in an isolated house and compete for a large cash pr ...

, finishing in eighth place. To date, he is one of the most visibly successful BBN 2006 cast members. In January 2017, he was announced as the host of the second season of Big Brother Naija as well as the third season. After the reality show in 2006, he signed endorsement deals with a major telecommunications brand as well as a popular brewing company and as such hosted ''Friend or Foe'' on NTA, the ''GLO Show'', also on NTA, as well as ''Guinness' Greatness TV''. He also maintained a weekly column called ''Contrast'' with a Nigerian national daily newspaper, ''

This Day ''This Day'' is a Nigerian national newspaper. It is the flagship newspaper of Leaders & Company Ltd and was first published on 22 January 1995. It has its headquarters in Apapa, Lagos State. Founded by Nduka Obaigbena, the Chairman & Editor-in ...

. In the run up to the 2011 general elections in Nigeria, he hosted the first ever presidential debate focused on youth issues, which was broadcast live across Nigeria.

Rubbin Minds and EbonyLife TV

In 2013, producers of ''Rubbin' Minds'', a Nigerian television talk-show, announced that Obi-Uchendu would be the new host. In 2013, Obi-Uchendu became one of the co-hosts of ''The Spot'', a TV show on

DSTV Digital Satellite Television, commonly abbreviated to DStv, is a Sub-Saharan African direct broadcast satellite service owned by MultiChoice and based in Randburg, South Africa. Launched on 6 October 1995, the service provides multiple audio, ...

, alongside Lamide Akintobi and

Zainab Balogun Zainab Balogun-Nwachukwu (born 10 October 1989) is a Nigerian actress, model and television presenter. She began modelling at an early age after being scouted at 16.Ade-Unuigbe, Adesola. "Fab Interview: 'I Have a Little Crush on D'Banj' Zanaib ...

. In July 2016, he became the host of ''Men's Corner'', Nigeria's first all male TV talk show. Ahead of the Big Brother Naija Season 5 reunion, a few fans called for Ebuka Obi-Uchendu to step aside as host. But the greater number of fans and celebrities defended the host's performance so far.

Filmography

Awards and recognition

Ebuka and Toke Makinwa presenting at the 2020 AMVCA 11

Personal life

On 15 April 2015 Ebuka got engaged to Cynthia Obianodo in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the List of cities in Africa by population, second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national ca ...

. They got married on 6 February 2016 in

. On 8 November 2016, they welcomed a daughter. In 2018 they announced they were expecting another child via

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

. Cynthia once said she met her husband, Ebuka on

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obi-Uchendu, Ebuka 1982 births Living people Big Brother (franchise) contestants Igbo people Nigerian television personalities Nigerian television presenters Nigerian media personalities People from Anambra State Nigerian lawyers