MFA Production Student
Owokere "Benji" Unanaowo (oo-nana-whoa) is a filmmaker & screenwriter from the Bay Area, Ca. The son of a Nigerian Immigrant & a Black American, he has a deeply rooted love for storytelling across the diaspora. Benj's former career as a drama and performance teacher afforded him the ability to work in thirty-two states. While traveling the country, he was blessed with the opportunity to help students craft monologues, plays, and performative narratives. And he's now pursuing an MFA film production degree at the University of Texas to become a well-rounded storyteller and filmmaker. Benji is a lover of history and uses historical folklore and narrative to examine how people and the choices they're presented with shape society. He desires to illuminate their stories to make films that are good ole' fashioned fun yet give inspiration and thought to those living in the margins.