Femi Emiola

Femi Emiola is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the TV series Wicked Wicked Games and in the web series If Looks Could Kill. Her first name is a Yoruba translation pronounced "F-eh-mi" meaning "love me" or "marry me".

Biography

Early life

Femi Emiola was born in Iowa City, Iowa to a Filipina mother and a Nigerian father, then both PhD candidates at the University of Iowa. Femi lived her early life in the Philippines and in Nigeria before returning to the United States as a teenager. While in Nigeria, she was educated at the Federal Government Colleges and the International School Ibadan. Both her parents are chemists.

She trained in Theatre Arts at Iowa State University and studied in New York City with director and acting teacher, Wynn Handman, a former colleague of Sanford Meisner and artistic director/co-founder of The American Place Theatre.

Career

Emiola made her film debut in an award-winning short film "The Living Silence". Her performance in the film helped garner the filmmaker, Tanya Steele, a Directors Guild East Coast Student Filmmaker Award.

Between 2006 and 2007, Emiola played Lani Walker, the assistant to vindictive and psychotic Blythe Hunter portrayed by Tatum O'Neal in the My Network TV telenovela Wicked Wicked Games, which premiered on December 6, 2006 and aired to completion (65 episodes) in March 2007.

Emiola appeared on the television shows ER, Ghost Whisperer, Scrubs, Las Vegas, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Tyler Perry's House of Payne, and The Practice.

In 2000, Emiola posed for the artist Meredith Bergmann. Emiola's profile became the foundation for Bergmann's Phillis Wheatley, which was part of the Boston Women's Memorial, unveiled in 2003 on Commonwealth Avenue Mall in Boston. The sculpture included Lucy Stone and Abigail Adams, is crafted from bronze and granite, and is Bergmann's largest public commission.

In June 2008, Emiola became the face of a marketing campaign for the Toyota Camry. The campaign launched on June 9, 2008 and targeted affluent African-American women ages 25–40. There were no television commercials; instead Toyota created an interactive website, Iflookscouldkill.com, which included a video series and an online game. The online campaign was also supported by billboards and radio ads with Emiola's voice prompting listeners to logon to the website.

The $5 million campaign centered on the website and a six-episode video series, promoted as "where espionage and high fashion collide." The target audience for the campaign was African-American women with an annual income of $70,000 and up. Emiola starred as Bianca Turner, a fashion designer and Toyota Camry owner who becomes unwittingly involved in an espionage plot. Viewers could navigate within scenes and play along, picking up clues to assist Bianca as she tries to solve the mystery. Print and online ads on BET.com and Essence.com also supported the campaign which ran from June 9 through July 27, 2008. 42 Entertainment in Pasadena, California, developed the game and the site. Burrell Communications, Chicago, is Camry's agency.

Filmography