Veteran actress Keji Yusuf has revealed how a false rumour that she moved to Dubai made senior colleague Yinka Quadri stop calling her for movie work. She shared the story on the African A-List podcast, saying the gossip travelled far enough to cost her opportunities from a man she still called her boss.
Yusuf said the shock came when they finally met again.
“Yinka Quadri saw me at an event and asked me in shock that where did I go. He said someone told him I had relocated to Dubai. I was shocked because what would I have been looking for in Dubai when my work is here in Nigeria?”
She said Quadri stuck to what he had heard.
“He said that was what he was told. I told him he should’ve called to confirm the veracity of that information. He insisted that that was what he heard and that was all.”
The actress blamed industry malice for how quickly the story spread.
“That information would’ve traveled far because our people have malice. Every individual has their season. There was a time when whenever you turned on your TV, you’d see me — whether in English or Yoruba productions.”
Yusuf is a familiar face in Yoruba and English Nollywood. Her credits include The Narrow Path (2006), Everybody Loves Jenifa (2024), and the 2014 film Ilu Oba (The Queens Land), shot in London and Nigeria. Quadri, born Akanni Olayinka Quadri on 6 September 1959, has been on screen since 1976 and remains one of the most recognised veterans in Yoruba cinema.