All The Reasons Why Baby Drama Is On Our Watchlist

By Onna Okafor

If you’ve been sleeping on Africa Magic’s newest show, Baby Drama currently streaming on Showmax, we highly recommend you check it out.

Boasting an ensemble cast, here are all the reasons Baby Drama makes our Showmax watchlist.

The cast
From veteran actress Bimbo Akintola, who won the 2016 Best Actress award at the Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) for her role in 93 Days, to star on the rise, Nengi Adoki, who you’ll probably recognise as Lola in The Men’s Club, Baby Drama boasts a solid cast.

Bikiya Graham-Douglas (Flower Girl) and Anee Icha (Before 30), who could pass for real-life sisters, keep us highly engaged with their portrayal of siblings who are polar opposites but unwavering in their devotion to one another.

Joseph Benjamin (Isoken), Uru Eke (Rumour Has It), Okey Uzoeshi (Couple of Days), Beverly Osu (Chief Daddy) and Wole Ojo (Coming From Insanity) are just some of the other popular faces who round off this ensemble cast.

The plot
Infertility is something many Nigerian couples face and Baby Drama shines the light very brightly on this subject. According to the show’s executive producer, Emem Ema, who shared her thoughts via her Instagram page: “We have a story to tell...one that a lot of women (and some men) struggle with; some in the privacy of their hearts and others in full glare of more than necessary.”

Esosa Essien (Graham-Douglas) has been married for seven years without a child and is desperate to conceive. Similarly, Natasha Amadi (Akintola) has been married for many years without a child and is on the verge of losing her marriage over the couple’s childlessness. Desperate, both women go to great lengths to satisfy that which they desire the most - becoming mothers.

On the flip side is Esosa’s younger sister, Iye (Icha) who is an ambitious top-level executive in a financial institution for whom motherhood holds no immediate appeal as she is completely focused on her career. Kese (Adoki), sister-in-law to Iye, is a successful tech professional who is still single and pursues the option of freezing her eggs for the future while Amara Williams (Eke) is a Nollywood actress who has suddenly found herself pregnant with the child of a certain married producer.

Leading very different lives, conception means very different things to these characters and through them, we learn of the hurdles women struggling to conceive must jump, as well as the pressures conception and motherhood can present for career women.

The crew
Baby Drama no doubt has a solid cast, and the crew is just as impressive. Nigerians will remember Emem Ema as one third of KUSH, the female group who took the early 2000s by storm with their hit single, ‘Let’s Live Together'. These days, when Emem isn’t playing the role of EP, she runs One Management, a creative management company managing the likes of Mr P formerly of P-Square.

Uzodinma Okpechi, the Nollywood veteran behind early 2000s hit movies like the award-winning Battle of Love and music videos like 2Face Idibia’s hit single ‘African Queen’, is credited as director alongside Adeola Osunkojo (Flatmates, Rumour Has It) and Yemi Morafa (Battleground). Besides starring on the show, Anee also serves as associate producer and script editor. Tamara Aihie, who fans will recognise as host of The Yellow Wall and panelist on The Shade Corner, both showing on Accelerate TV, serves as one of the writers on Baby Drama.

Fashion
The wardrobe is definitely one of the elements that have us excited about Baby Drama, especially that of Bikiya and Anee’s characters, who deliver plus-size fashion with flair. So it was no surprise to learn that Nigerian designer and 2016 Future Award Prize for Fashion nominee, Wanger Ayu, serves as the HOD for Styling and Wardrobe on the show.