Tunde Babalola
Tunde Babalola, is a scriptwriter in Nigerian cinema and British television series. He is most notable for the script writing of critically acclaim movies such as "Last Flight to Abuja", "Critical Assignment", "October 1" and "Citation". Personal life. He was born and grew up in England. Later he moved to Nigeria with parents and siblings. His father was an accountant and mother worked in the Central Bank. Under the guidance of his uncle, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Nigerian Army, Babalola forced to apply to the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA). However, his mother did not give him the  permission. Therefore, he gained admission to study Dramatic Arts at the Obafemi Awolowo University. Career. At the age of 14, he wrote his first film script "In The Raw". After he returned to United Kingdom, he joined with Channel 4 and wrote the play for sitcom series called "In Exile". He later worked with several the channels: BBC, Carlton Television and Chrysalis Television. Babalola started as a writer with the TV serial "The Bill". After the serial received fan popularity, he wrote the three TV serials in 1997: "True to Life Player", "Crime of a Lesser Passion" and "Armed and  Dangerous". In 1998, he wrote the serial "One Man, Two Faces". Later in 2002, he made maiden cinema appearance as an actor with the horror film "Deep Freeze". He played the role as a helicopter pilot. In 2014, he wrote the script of critically acclaimed blockbuster "October 1", where he took four weeks to write the first draft of the film and three drafts only took about a week to complete. The script was initially submitted with the title "Dust", mainly because the story is set in a very dusty town. Even though Afolayan didn't want to do big  budget projects at the time, he knew he had no choice, as he wanted to interpret the writer's vision adequately because it is a "national film with a universal appeal". He expressed that he liked the story of "October 1" because it is a period piece, which he had never done before and "it is also significant to the present state of Nigeria". As a result, he decided to explore the film by adding his own ideas to the subsequent drafts of the script. In 2015, he joined as the writer and producer of the comedy TV production "Rib  Busters: Comedy Show". In 2015, Babalola won the awards for the Best Comedy Writer for the film "The meeting" and Best Drama Writer for the film "October 1" at Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.