Elizabeth 'Liz' Benson (born 5 April 1966) is a Nigerian actress,

television personality Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

and philanthropist.

Early life and education

Liz was born in Etinan, Akwa Ibom State in southern Nigeria. She attended Sylvania State College in the United States of America, where she got a degree in Dramatic Arts. Benson began acting when she was 5 years old.

Career

Early success and quitting the film industry

She featured in Fortunes, a television

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

in 1993. Benson played the part of Mrs. Agnes Johnson in the soap, which ran for about two years on NTA Network. In 1994, her role in '' Glamour Girls'', a successful

home video Home video is prerecorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD, Blu-ray and streaming me ...

film that focused on the theme of prostitution, cemented her status as a film actress. Benson suddenly quit acting in 1996.

Return to Nollywood

Since returning to

Nollywood Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there ...

, it was disclosed that she is a born-again Christian and now preaches the gospel on fulltime-basis. In an interview, she explained that she would only act in films that she believed was in line with her faith.

Personal life

Benson lost her first husband (Samuel Gabriel Etim) while around her mid-twenties. She said that she actually gained strength from his character and that made her able to carry on with her children through the loss. The Ibibio-born actress, took another shot at marriage after her conversion. In a quiet court ceremony in

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 ...

in 2009, She married Bishop Great Ameye of Freedom Family Assembly at the Rainbow Christian Assembly in

Warri The city of Warri is an oil hub within South-South Nigeria and houses an annex of the Delta State Government House. Warri City is one of the major hubs of the petroleum industry in Nigeria. Warri and her twin city, Uvwie are the commercial ...

, Delta State. The couple are deeply involved in a Christian Evangelical Ministry. While Benson is an evangelist, her husband, Ameye, is a pastor in Warri, Delta State. Benson is an evangelist and lives in Delta State with her husband. Together they run a ministry, Freedom Family Assembly.

Selected filmography

Some of her more popular roles include her role as Titubi in

Femi Osofisan Babafemi Adeyemi Osofisan (born June 16, 1946), known as Femi Osofisan or F.O., is a Nigerian writer noted for his critique of societal problems and his use of African traditional performances and surrealism in some of his plays. A frequent theme ...

's ''Morountodun'' and as Mrs. Agnes Johnson in ''Fortunes'', a soap opera that ran for about two years on

Nigerian Television Authority The Nigerian Television Authority or NTA is a Nigerian government-owned and partly commercial broadcast station. Originally known as Nigerian Television (NTV), it was inaugurated in 1977 with a monopoly on national television broadcasting, after ...

(NTA) Channel 10. She acted in a number of Nollywood video-films such as ''Evil Men 1'' and ''2'', ''Shame'', ''Conspiracy'', ''Izaga'', ''Burden'', ''Stolen Child'', ''Faces'', ''Dead End'', ''Tycoon'', '' Glamour Girls'', ''Body of Vengeance'' and a horde of other movies which includes:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benson, Liz 1966 births Living people Nigerian Christians Actresses from Delta State 20th-century Nigerian actresses 21st-century Nigerian actresses Actresses in Yoruba cinema Nigerian television actresses Nigerian film actresses Nigerian Pentecostal pastors Nigerian Christian clergy Yoruba people People from Akwa Ibom State