Wale Ogunyemi

Ogunyemi was born on 12 August 1939 at Igbajo, a city in Osun State, southwestern Nigeria to Samuel Adeosun and Mary Ogunyemi.[4] He attended the University of Ibadan in 1967 for a year course in drama, the same year he was appointed as a research assistant at Ibadan Institute of African Studies where he later retired.[5][6][7]

Ogunyemi began his acting career as a seasonal actor with the new western Nigerian television service in the early 1960s.[8] He later worked with professor Wole Soyinka, a Nobel Laureate and became a foundation member of Soyinka Orisun Theatre.[9] His credible performance made him a choice for the role he played as "The bale" in The Lion and the Jewel[10] and Dende in Kongi's Harvest by professor Wole Soyinka.[11] He also featured in The Beatification Of Area Boy, a play by Wole Soyinka premiered at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 1995.[12] He had written and co-scripted several drama before his death in December 2001.[13][14]

• The Lion and the Jewel
• Kongi's Harvest
• Sango (1997)
• The Beatification Of Area Boy[15][16]
• The Ijaye War (1970)[17]
• Kiriji (1976)[18]
• The Divorce (1975)[19]
• Aare Akogun (1968) and Everyman *Eniyan, published in 1987)
• Langbodo (1979)[20]

• Member of the Order of the Niger awarded in 1982 by the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
• Majeobaje of Okuku, a chieftaincy title conferred on him by the Olokuku of Okukuland[21]