She was born on 25th March 1958 in the village of Amaobo, Ngwo, Enugu State in the south eastern part of Nigeria.
The veteran actress got married at the age of 19 in an arranged marriage.
According to her, although she had many suitors at the time, her parents forced her to get married at that early age for reasons she still cannot tell, except that it may be because of the influence of a polygamous family like the one in which she was born into.
While the marriage was not easy for her, she remained in it.
It was in 2000 that her husband died. Before his death, her late husband had come to become her real companion. According to Patience, she keeps missing him even many years after his death.
The actress has three biological children and five adopted ones who all bear her name. Her son who is in the United States has a music label and has a knack for the entertainment industry.
She also has a daughter who also has something for the industry but neither has made any attempt to join Nollywood. Both her son and daughter are now married.
The supposedly most-wicked woman in Nollywood is saved.
In interviews, the star actress is always quick to point out God as the pillar of her success and how she couldn’t have achieved anything were it not for God. She currently attends Dominion City Church, founded by Pastor David Ogbueli.
Unlike Mama Gee in movies, Patience Ozokwor can actually sing.
And that’s not everything that her voice can do; apart from making her that “wicked” Nollywood star, it has made her a formidable gospel artist with real fun. In fact, as we speak, this Nollywood star is planning to release a second gospel album.
It even gets more interesting when she points out that she has a dance crew that she’s currently funding which is the celebrated Rhema Entertainment Ministry dance crew.
Ozokwor is a widow as her husband died from a terminal disease in 2000. By then, their last born child was already in the university.
Before acting, Mama Gee was a qualified teacher. She remained a teacher for more than three years before deciding to push for other things.
Interestingly in Afikpo Teachers Training College, Mama Gee had a literature teacher who taught her and a number of other students drama, and then made them present a single play each semester.
On most occasions, she was made to play Hamlet in Shakespeare’s play by the same title, Hamlet.
And since other schools used to pay to watch Hamlet, she became extremely popular among students during her college life.
Before getting into the film industry, she did a commercial with the late actor, Pete Eneh that moved Chief Zebrudaya and a number of other Nollywood directors, as well.
It was then that she was asked to get into film, but she refused because (one) she felt the film industry would give her superfluous exposure and (two) she was extremely shy.
After several attempts of failed persuasion, they eventually managed to pull her to Nollywood.
Patience Ozokwor first movie came in 1998/9.
By then, she was already a national star in Nigeria. A year later, she did her second movie called “Authority” that propelled her to the limelight and made her the African-movie-icon that we all know today.
The talented actress has played different roles in over 100 Nollywood movies. She has even acted the role of a mother to almost every known Nollywood star—like Ini Edo, Van Vicker, Ramsey Nouah, Rita Dominic, Kanayo O Kanayo, Oge Okoye and the rest–except for Pete Edochie and Olu Jacobs, who she jokingly said refused to let her be their mother in a movie.
Mama Gee has three biological children and adopted children. As reported by her children, she is a very caring and proud mother. She has a son who played for Enugu Rangers before moving to Turkey to play football. The son, Nduka Ozokwor, now plays for MKE Ankaragücü.
Mama Gee was at some point a renowned radio presenter. But at the moment, apart from being the great actor we all know, she is also a well-acclaimed fashion designer. So we can at least say that the time she spent at IMT Enugu wasn’t completely a waste of time.
Sources: bellanaija.com with http://www.african-research.com
