By Benjamin Njoku

Ex-beauty queen, Grace Edwin Okon, who started her journey into the world of entertainment, after she won the Miss Face of DELSU pageant, as an undergraduate, and going ahead to emerge the second runner-up in the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) in 1999, has been explaining why she dumped her first love – modeling for acting.

The multi-talented actress, in a recent chat with HVP, said her decision to dump modeling was informed by the realization that it was not as mentally challenging as what it’s presently. “If I have to be honest, film making is very intellectual. While I was into modeling, I realized it was not as mentally challenging as what it’s today. The terrain has changed with issues like Project Runway,” she explained.

The ex-beauty queen who has starred in such films as “Tears in Heaven, Extreme Measures, My Dream among others appears to be more of a scriptwriter and a producer, though she still loves acting. In this regard, she said, “I see script writing as something that requires a lot of work. I put myself into it and today, I have written close to ten scripts out of which six have been produced. As a producer, I was challenged when I see the likes of Emem Isong put in a lot of work into their production.”

Edwin-Okon, whose film won the Best Short film at AMVCAs disclosed that apart from producing documentary, short and feature length films, she’s currently into animation. I want to do something different. I want to do animated series for children and full length feature animations. I already have my own character, Funsie, from my niece’s name. Her name is Funsinoluwa. I learned how to produce animation for two years from a PR and animation studio in Lagos. That’s one of the reasons I disappeared from the scene.”