A team of City People employees visited Yeye Toyin Adegbola at her beautiful home in Ibadan in the Oluyole Extension estate as part of our 20th anniversary celebration, which aims to visit many of our movie veterans and icons wherever they may be in the South-West.
Trying to get her for an interview has been very, very difficult because she is always busy on one project or the other. She also travels a lot. She is a woman of many parts. She is involved in Politics. She is involved in community work. And she is actively into Philanthropy. She is involved in so many activities.
She also spends a lot of time visiting her children (both biological & adopted) all of whom now live abroad. They have all become grown ups. They all want her to come spend quality time with them. Many of them even send tickets to her. And they all compete with each other on where she will go first. Over the years, she had invested a lot on them. There are so many of them who grew up with her and lived under the same roof with her, but who now live abroad.
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At 63, Toyin Adegbola who started acting many years back, still looks good for her age. She is still very beautiful and blessed with a baby-tender light skin. She has remained her playful self, which is one of the things that endear her to many people.
Though she lives in Ibadan, she frequents Osogbo, a lot. She is a valued indigene of Osun State. She has also been active in Ibadan for years. She worked at TSOS.
Though her real name is Toyin Adegbola, she is popularly known as Toyin Tomato or Toyin Asewo Toh Re Mecca, a movie which shot her to limelight.
Up till today, everywhere she goes, people rush to greet her. And they all call her by her alias Ashewo Toh Re Mecca. She has other nicknames. Some call her Yeye. She has done well for herself as a star actress, Producer and Director. She has acted in countless movies, produced many herself and also directed many movies.
Because she is good at what she does, she is still in hot demand. Many producers like to feature her. And she gets invited to locations frequently. The fact that she is restless and playful makes everyone to love her. She also likes to drop rib cracking jokes from time to time. When you are with her, you would not stop laughing.
There is no dull moment. She is naturally full of life and has boundless energy. She loves to dance naturally and keeps acting all the time, even in real life. She has a good heart. She is nice and generous to a fault. She has many young people whose school fees she pays. She also takes care of the vulnerable and Aged in the movie industry. She is a cheerful giver who loves to always put a smile on people’s faces.
Call her a veteran actress and you will be correct to do so. Call her a movie icon and you won’t be wrong. This is because she has been in the Theatre world since the late 70’s as a student. She attended Festac in 1977 and OSFAC in 1978.
But professionally, she started acting in 1983. Toyin Adegbola began her acting career in the Yoruba language films of Nollywood. She started from Stage plays (Alarinjo Theatre) and moved on to acting in optical films. No wonder her face is very popular in the Movie industry.
What helped her was the fact that she started working with TSOS in 1982. The 1st movie she acted in was Ejongboro. And she retired in 1992 after 10 meritorious years with the organisation to enable her face acting fully.
She has been a Widow for years and she has refused to remarry. Toyin Adegbola was married to a fellow journalist, Anthony Kolawole Adegbola who later died many years ago. Their wedding was grand in those days in Ibadan. They shut down the ancient city. She has a lot of her wedding photos on the wall of her living room. Staring at one of it, she recalls their relationship. “That is Tony & Toyin on their wedding day,” she told City People, pointing to the photo frame. She met her late husband when she was working in the Television house. They have lovely kids together. She also has grand children.
Her numerous roles in plenty movies has brought her fame. The movie Asewo To Re Mecca came out in 1991 and it was a big hit. It was Oga Bello’s movie. When it came out she couldn’t walk the streets. Till today she still can’t walk the streets of Ibadan or Osogbo without attracting a crowd that will converge around her calling her Asewo To Re Mecca.
The film brought with it a lot of controversy. She has featured in many other hit films like Koseegbe, Akobi Gomina, The Campos Queen, Queen, Oga Olopa, Omo University and many others.
A section of the wall of her living room has close to over 100 award plaques of professional excellence Award.