Actor Segun Arinze reveals how he got his stage name

Actor Segun Arinze has revealed how he came by his stage name.

 

 

The 58-year-old, originally named Segun Aina, revealed that he adopted the stage name ‘Segun Arinze’ in 1991 during his pursuit of a music career.

 

 

He said this in an interview with Biola Bayo on the Talk To B podcast, on Tuesday, April 2.

 

 

He said: “I was also singing. In 1991, I was told someone wanted to sign me. ‘We are going to sign you on’. He came from Sony Music. So he called me and I signed the contract. He signed. And then he said ‘Okay we are going to start recording.

 

 

“Went to Ife to do Dramatic Arts. My dad did not like the idea because he wanted me to be a lawyer. At a point in time, I thought he was not going to pay my school fees to go and read drama.

 

 

“Then the National Theatre was running an open theatre then… ‘welcome new artiste Segun Arinze’. I said ‘excuse me sir what is this? I said why are you changing my name? The album came out – ‘Dreams’. Everywhere was ‘Segun Arinze, Segun Arinze. That was how the name got changed from Segun Aina to Segun Arinze in a nutshell”.

 

 

He also recounted how he was introduced to voice acting by Soni Irabor, a radio broadcaster.

 

 

“Soni Irabor walks in someday and he was looking for voice-over artiste. There was nobody around that day then he heard me speak.

 

 

“Then he said ‘You can do the voice’ Really? I cannot, he said ‘Yes, you can and I will see what you do’. And I did the voice-over. He paid me N1000. That was 1987. N1000 for just doing (voice-over). I said this is big. Coloured TV was N500 at that time.”

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