Nigerian actress, journalist, television presenter, and cosmetologist, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, clocked 76 on Friday.
The veteran actress can be compared to a rose that is most beautiful in full bloom. As every year passes, she keeps blossoming.
Below are 12 things everybody should know about her
- Taiwo Ajai-Lycett was born in Lagos, Nigeria and is of Awori heritage
2. She studied business and administration in London, and also has a certificate in cosmetology.
3. She worked as waitress, secretary and personal assistant at different times before she started acting.
4. Her acting career started in December 1966 in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, a two-act comedy directed by William Gaskill at the Royal Court Theatre in London. She did not plan to act but was in the rehearsal hall of the play when she was asked by Gaskill to be a participant.
5. Following positive reviews about her first performance, she decided to take acting seriously and enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
6. She appeared in several stage and television productions in the UK one of which is an episode of the hit comedy Some Mothers Do ’Ave ’Em.
7. Upon return to Nigeria, she landed roles in iconic productions like Laolu Ogunniyi’s Wings Against My Soul on NTA.
8. Her husband, Thomas Lycett, died in 1993 while she was in the middle of a theatre run and was buried at Atan Cemetery, Yaba, Lagos.
9. They have no child together although she has a son from a previous marriage to a Nigerian.
10. She was awarded the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) national honour by President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006.
11. She is still very active on the stage and screen with recent works including Hear Word, V-Monologues, Tinsel, Dazzling Mirage and Oloibiri.
12. A Fellow of the Society of Nigerian Theatre Artists (SONTA), Mrs Ajai-Lycett is a freethinker.
