Mercy Johnson is an admired Nollywood actress who has featured in quite an impressively long list of movies.
She was born on August 28, 1984 in Lagos, Nigeria. She hails from Kogi State Nigeria and was born into a family of 7 children of which she was the 4th child. Her father was a naval officer, Daniel Johnson and mother Elizabeth.
Educational Background
Mercy Johnson did her primary education in Calabar and Lagos. She later went to ‘Nigerian Navy Secondary School’, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Her Acting Career
Mercy Johnson made her journey into acting after she failed her ‘University Matriculation Examination’ (UME), perhaps as a result of her numerous engagements to meet up life. Again, owing to financial reasons, she was a drop out from school which led her to embark on a career in acting.
To sustain her life, she indulged in menial businesses like hawking of water and even served as a housemaid.
Mercy began acting professionally of some years back. She acted her first movie, “The Maid”. Her brilliant role in that movie actually brought her to limelight and launched her into a successful career in Nollywood.
Mercy had a humble beginning which is seen by many as a demonstration of her love to all irrespective of tribe, religion and status. She believes in equality of men whether rich or poor. Her poor background also may have been the reason for her intriguing roles in some movies drawing emotion from her fans.
Mercy Johnson is creative, skillful and highly talented Nollywood actress known for good interpretation of roles. She is popular in taking the character of a maid and orphan in most movies and her style of acting has made her loved by numerous fans as a good actress both home and abroad.
She won the Best Supporting Actress in 2009 at the African Movie Award Ceremony. Today, Mercy Johnson has starred in over 200 Nollywood movies just too many to mention here.
Awards:
Mercy Johnson is a recipient of a number of awards notably as:
• 2009 Best Supporting Actress at the African Film Award.
• 2013 won Best Actress at the ‘Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards for her role in ‘Dumebi the Dirty Girl’.
Achievements
Mercy Johnson within her short time in acting profession has achieved a lot.
She set up Mercy Johnson Foundation, a platform created at encouraging and supporting children and widows who are less fortunate and vulnerable in our society of today.
She also made a remarkable achievement in December, 2013 when she donated livelihood materials to about 5000 widows in Uromi, Edo State, her husband’s community. Such items like foodstuff, blankets etc. were given out free to demonstrate love which the bible enjoins us to share.
Mercy Johnson was a time appointed Senior Special Assistant to Kogi state government.
She was also a brand Ambassador of Mr. Chef Iodized Salt.
Challenges
Like any human being on earth, Mercy was in the course of her acting had a fare share of some challenges.
She was one of the banned actresses in the Nollywood movies in 2013 for what the Censored Board described as her asking for too much pay per movie which to them, was not encouraging. Genevieve, Omotola, Nkem Owoh were victims of this ban.
However, in 2014, the ban was lifted following an apology from the actress.
Her Personal Life
Mercy happily got married to Prince Odianosen Okojie from Edo State in 2011 and the wedding was well attended by many Nollywood celebrities within and outside Nigeria at the Christ Embassy, Oregun Lagos.
The marriage is today blessed with three children – Purity, Henry and Angel.
There is something remarkable about Mercy Johnson; her love for her husband. In 2009, when she realized that things were becoming serious and uncomfortable with husband, she stopped accepting romantic roles.
She even said that she would not hesitate to give them up for the sake of her husband. She also made a reduction in her accepting certain roles.
We can rightly say that Mercy Johnson is an epitome of greatness whose comparison can be liken to great Nollywood actresses like Rita Dominic, Monalisa, Genevieve and others who have excelled in movie career and a role model that the young coming African girls can look up to for inspiration and motivation.
Her Net Worth
Mercy Johnson is indeed one of the richest and most influential female actresses in Nigeria with a net worth of about $400,000 dollars.