Tunde Kelani, popularly known as TK, is a Nigerian filmmaker, storyteller, director, photographer, cinematographer and producer. In a career spanning more than four decades, TK specializes in producing movies that promote Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and have a root in documentation, archiving, education, entertainment, and promotion of the culture.

He is also known for his love of the adaptation of literary material into movies as most of his works have followed that style of filmmaking including Ko se Gbe, Oleku, Thunder Bolt, The Narrow Path, White Handkerchief, Maami and Dazzling Mirage.

In the 1970s, Kelani worked as a BBC TV and Reuters correspondent, and in Nigerian TV. For Reuters he travelled to Ethiopia to cover the drought and to Zimbabwe three times to cover independence there. Once he finished from the London Film School, he returned to Nigeria and co-produced his first film with Adebayo Faleti called The Dilema of Rev. Father Michael. Other co-producers include Alhaji Lasisi Oriekun, Wale Fanubi – his partner from Cinekraft, Yemi Farounbi and screenplay by Lola Fani-Kayode. Tunde Kelani has also worked on most feature films produced in Nigeria in his capacity as a cinematographer. Some of the 16mm feature films he worked on include: Anikura; Ogun Ajaye; Iya Ni Wura; Taxi Driver; Iwa and Fopomoyo. In 1990, Kelani was an assistant director and an actor in the 1990 film Mister Johnson, the first American film shot on location in Nigeria. Starring Pierce Brosnan and Maynard Eziashi, the film was based on a 1939 novel by Joyce Cary.

Let’s welcome Tunde Kelani to the GAGE Academy 2022.