She is tall, dark, sleek, with brains, a graduate of English and Literary Studies, amiable and about the hottest sensation in the Nigerian movie scene. Let's take a stroll into the world of Stephanie Onyekachi Okereke.

I am from a family of eight, that's a large one I guess? I am the sixth child and the third girl. I had my secondary school education in Delta State, then my tertiary education at the University of Calabar..

How she got into acting

How did I get into acting? When I finished my secondary school, I went for an audition at MINAJ Television. I got there, they told me that to act in the home video, I've got to be a member of the Nigerian Actors Guild. I went for the meeting. I met the guy called Teco Benson and he told me that there was a movie coming up, so I auditioned for it and they gave me the role I played in Compromise part 2 and Waterloo, then that was in 1997.The following year, I got admission into school. Then 2002 I went for the Most Beautiful Girl In Nigeria pageant, then later I felt I should go into this thing fulltime so that's how I got into acting.

Challenges

Yes, not really because one is an actress and people see you almost all the time. Men will call you all the time, they want to have dinner with you, they want to meet you, they want to do all kinds of things. You have a lot of them coming after you.

How do I take it? Just like some will call you and say hey... I want to see you and I will go: "Sorry, I'm busy, I'm working;" you can't see everyone, may be you're walking somewhere, someone says,"Hey! Hi, I was the one that called you the other day and you go. 'Hey, hi, how 're you doing?" You just talk to them politely that's just it.

Controversies

At the beginning, people say she is the one who featured in this movie; I could remember some guy going crazy for me. "You are the one I saw in that movie." After a time it fizzled out till I went for the contest and after then started featuring full time.

As for the experience at the beauty contest, it was fun. It was a nice experience, it was something that helped in building one's confidence and meeting a lot of people. It is not easy, you know, walking naked, after doing it for sometime, you just feel stupid. Let me not say stupid, let the young girls not feel stupid doing it. But it takes a lot of strong will for you to wear bikinis and walk in front of people who don't even look that good, they sit down and try judging you. "Ok, her leg is like this and her this is like that, you know it takes a lot of courage for you to do that, it's really not easy. It really positioned me to say I've tried this. I've tried that, so that's just that. It was more like a foundation. It was the basis. That's just it.

Unfortunately I am a free-minded person. As I was going into the contest, it was either you win or you lose. So now if you lose, what are you going to do? It actually helped me because it shaped me into who I am. If I didn't win, there are some other things I'm good at, let me focus on the things I am good at and see how I am going to get there. It didn't make me feel less of a person, it was just a contest and rather it made me feel ok. My father did not have problem with me. He knew it right from my secondary school days, that I am a showbiz person. So he gave me all his support.