Lani Aisida

Lani Aisida (born November 17, 1984) is a Nigerian screenwriter and producer. Among the shows and films he's written for are Oga! Pastor, Skinny Girl in Transit, and Just Not Married, with the last earning him a nomination for a Best of Nollywood Award for Best Screenplay. He has been nicknamed the "King of Web Series" for writing popular webs series. Quotes From a young age, I actually thought my future would be in music. I loved Nigerian music before it was a cool thing to love Nigerian music. I wrote songs, forced my sister to learn the lines, got my cousins to be back top dancers to the patient audience of my bedroom mirror. I was always in Yaba buying one CD or the other – I’m an album guy. I remember my dad seizing my CD collection once because I misbehaved. Anyway, I went from dreaming of being a recording artiste to being behind the scene; managing talent and organising a weekly music gathering – Talents @ Gidi (t@g). However, the real connection to TV and film came from my day job as a chartered accountant. I went to Soji Ogunnaike’s office to do his books but we ended up talking more about film than accounting. During that conversation, I shared an idea I had developed from my experience working in a call centre. That idea eventually became ‘Plus 234’. We set up a company, produced it and as they say, the rest is history. Looking back now, my strength in writing dialogue can easily be traced to my love for rap bars. One of my favorite writers, Aaron Sorkin says dialogue is rhythmic, and I strongly agree. I like my dialogue to have a cadence, almost as if I’m writing bars. Oh yeah, at some point in between that, I had a blog that I believe helped me improve my storytelling. Just before I got married. I knew that it’d be a rough few months ahead so I figured it was best to start experiencing that turbulence alone before bringing another person’s daughter into my situation. I remember my boss encouraging me to do both but I really thought being laser-focused was the best approach for me at the time. So I quit my day job. Accounting gave me stability but it not fulfilment. I didn’t want writing to exist merely as a side hustle. I wanted it to be part of my identity. So why not give it my best hours, not what was left of me after long days crunching numbers and studying tax laws. Is this the part where I say, it is God? I’ll say the desire to keep getting better at my craft and deep respect for the audience. Anyone that pays their money to watch a film I wrote in the cinema, or uses their data to stream online (legitimately), is giving me something incredibly valuable – money, time, and a portion of their life. The least I can do is give them the very best of myself. Honestly, there’s no typical workday for me. I’m not a morning guy or a night owl. I move when inspiration strikes or when deadlines demand it. I was in Church during a crossover service and someone came to give a testimony about being freed from the hands of kidnappers. There was a tension in his delivery that struck me, especially on a platform where a believer should feel safe. It felt as though I could hear and feel the things he wasn’t saying. Whenever I feel that strongly about something, I’m compelled to write about it. For clarity, The Herd is not a true life story.