Award Is Due To Hard Work- Rita Dominic

Nigerian actress Rita Dominic has attributed her winning the overall Africa Best Actress at the just-ended African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) to hard work. Rita beat Yvonne Okoro, Ama K Abebrese, Nse Ikpe Etim and Millicent Makheido to win the award for her role in the film, �Shattered�. After receiving her statuette on the night, she dedicated the award to African women especially and her friends on social networks including twitter. She told NEWS-ONE after the award ceremony it was her hard work that had paid off. She said the shooting of the movie was very challenging and described it as �the dark period of my life�. �Getting into character; I have not done anything like this in my 12 or 13 years as a professional actor. Getting into character was a challenge on its own. I have four different stages of emotional levels that I had to go through from child abuse to being downgraded, to drug abuse to mental retardation. It was a dark period of my life. �I will say that the people who haven�t seen this film, they should make sure they see it when it officially comes out. It is a film that everybody can relate to. Like I said in my speech, a lot of women in the world, especially African women, can relate to the character Njamah but it is also a story that people, men, women and children can relate to. I don�t want to give out much about story because I want you to watch it.� The overall best actress category had been won by Ghana two consecutive times. In 2010, three actresses- Lydia Forson, Jackie Appiah and Naa Ashokor Doku- picked the award for their joint role in Sparrows Production�s �Perfect Picture�. In 2011, Ama K. Abebrese won the award with her role in Leila Djansi�s �Sinking Sands�, beating the likes of Genevieve Nnaji. However, Nigeria bounced back with Rita Dominic winning this year. �Oh gosh I�m overwhelmed. I�m happy that I�m rewarded for a job that I put in so much work for. Words can�t even really describe how I feel now. The award means that I�m doing something right. It just means that doing something good,� she told NEWS-ONE after the ceremony on early Monday morning. It�s Rita first AMAA. Hopes are that the recognition will skyrocket her career to another level. Rita is good at what she does and has been in a lot of movies in Nigeria and outside Nigeria. Rita Dominic is a member of the Royal Waturuocha family of Aborh Mbaise local government area in Imo State. She is the youngest of 4 siblings. Her late parents were medical practitioners; her father was a medical doctor and her mother a nursing officer. Dominic completed her primary and secondary school in Abia State, Nigeria, before heading to the University of Port Harcourt, where she graduated with a BA (Honours) Degree in Theatre Arts in 1999. Dominic started performing when she was a child, appearing in school plays and children�s television shows in Imo state. In 1998, she starred in her first movie �A Time To Kill�. She won the City People Awards in 2004 as the Most Outstanding Actress.She has starred in over 100 Nollywood productions.