Who would have believed that a Nigerian would be a key part of a project managed by prolific American Actor, Director, and Producer, Tyler Perry?
‘Sistas’, a comedy-drama series, written, directed, and executive produced by Tyler Perry, follows the lives of four single black women. Relating quite literally to the current social set, it follows their careers, relationships, friendships, and romances, and tunes into the social media aspect as well. Chido Nwokocha, one of the actors on the show shared his journey being part of the ‘Sistas’ cast, his character, and working with Tyler Perry.
On how he landed his role on ‘Sistas’, Chido said “I was fortunate enough to audition at a casting session, and they liked my audition and flew me out to Atlanta. I actually auditioned for a couple of roles on ‘The Oval‘ and tested for a couple of roles. They liked me enough, and they said ‘actually, we have a better fit for you on this other show.’ I remember when I auditioned, I had started a new job, and I was bartending and at the end of the shift, I got a call from my manager saying, ‘Hey, Tyler Perry wants to bring you back out to test for this other role on ‘Sistas” And, I lost my job that day and flew out and got the part!”
Chido Nwokocha plays a very ‘interesting’ character, Gary Marshall Borders on ‘Sistas’ – starting off as a character you can’t help but fall in love with and then the red flags start popping up. When it came to humanizing his character and defending his actions, Nwokocha said, “Gary is a very complex character, he’s a guy struggling with what he has versus what he wants and it’s very interesting just trying to navigate the emotional levels of this character because on the surface there is likability to him, he is very charming, he does have a lot going for him, he is very self-aware but then there is another factor there, where he’s cheating on his wife. Not to give too much away, but he’s the guy that, as the show goes on, you start to understand why he moves the way he moves and the love is strong between him and Andi.”
Even though the show revolves around the four women, Nwokocha hopes the audience continues to ‘have a strong connection with the men’. “You know as part of the storyline and what we’re bringing in with the women involved as well,” he said.
There is a popular saying that anywhere you go in the world and you don’t find a Nigerian there, pack your bags and leave, it’s not worth staying there. Cheers to our brother Chido Nwokocha who is doing Nigeria proud in the United States of America and cheers to other Nigerians leaving their footmarks on the sand of time.
You can watch new episodes of Sistas on BET every Thursday night at 8:30 pm Nigerian time.
