Chico Ejiro

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Chico Ejiro (born Chico Maziakpono in Isoko, Delta, Nigeria) is a Nigerian movie auteur. Little is known about Ejiro other than that he is of the enteprenurial Igbo ethnicity, he originally studied agriculture, and he was drawn into video production because Nigerians would not buy blank videocassettes. His enormous body of work is typical of the new Nigerian cinema that started in the 1990s when cheap video-production equipment became available in the country. He owns a production company called Grand Touch Pictures, which based in Lagos.

Nicknamed Mr. Prolific, he directed over 80 movies within a 5-year period—each one shot in as little as three days. They feature story lines relevant to Nigerians but have poor production quality: terrible acting, muddled sound, and amateurish cinematography are prevalent throughout his oeuvre. The exact number of movies he has worked on as either director, producer, or both is unknown, but it ranges in the hundreds as of 2007. He was profiled in a New York Times article dated May 26, 2002 (“When There's Too Much of a Not-Very-Good Thing” by Matt Steinglass), and in an article from the international version of Time Magazine dated May 26, 2002 (“Hollywood, Who Really Needs It?” by Stephan Faris). Ejiro is married to Joy Chico Ejiro and they have two children. He has two brothers: Zeb Ejiro, the best-known of the new Nigerian cinema auteurs outside of the country, and Peter Red Ejiro, another Nigerian film producer.

Ejiro was featured in the 2007 documentary Welcome to Nollywood, which followed him as he made Family Affair 1 and Family Affair 2.