When over 4,000 hopefuls showed up for open auditions for Kemi Adetiba’s To Kill a Monkey, Oboz wasn’t one of them. But that didn’t stop him from landing one of the show’s coveted roles thanks to a late-night monologue, a touch of divine timing, and a strong dose of faith.
“I’ve always wanted to work with Kemi Adetiba,” Oboz revealed. “So, I had a conversation with my Heavenly Father. I said, ‘This is someone I want to work with. Please, make it happen.’ And He did.”
The opportunity came unexpectedly. Oboz was at a friend’s place, nursing a case of malaria, when he received a call asking him to record and submit a monologue. The deadline? Less than 24 hours.
“They’d already held the public auditions, and I heard over 4,000 people showed up,” he said. “But I wasn’t going to go. I believed my time would come another way.”
Despite battling malaria, Oboz jumped into action. With the help of his friend Edé (whose name later made a cameo in the series), he recorded a nine-minute monologue at a friend’s hotel, where they were attending a meeting.
“It was wild,” Oboz recalled. “There was no set, no lights just me, a camera, and a hotel room. But we made it work.”
Less than a day later, he got the call. “Kemi Adetiba’s younger brother called and said, ‘Luchi, you’ve got the job. We’ll need you for a couple of months.’ And that was it.”
It wasn’t until after speaking with Kemi Adetiba herself that he realized just how long the project had been in the works, dating back to one of her previous works, ‘King of Boys‘.
“I didn’t even know the backstory. I just wanted to be a part of it,” he said. “When we spoke, I asked if we could pray together. We reverenced God. Because for me, Yahweh is my number one agent.”
Now, with the series on everyone’s radar, Oboz credits his journey to faith, resilience, and being ready when opportunity (and a last-minute call) knocked.
“All of this happening now, it started with that prayer,” he said. “I didn’t make it to the auditions, but I made it into the story.”
