Femi Emiola

{{Infobox person

|name = Femi Emiola

|image = fetoyota.jpg

|caption=Emiola at the iflookscouldkill.com launch party

| birth_name =

| birth_place = Iowa City, Iowa, US

| occupation = Actress

| website = http://www.femiemiola.com

|imagesize = 150px

}}

Femi Emiola{{Audio|Yo-Fẹ́mi Ẹ̀míọlá.ogg|Listen|help=no}} 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 and last names come from the Yoruba language, and her first name is pronounced{{cite web|url=http://www.behindthename.com/names/usage/yoruba|website=Behind the Name|title=Femi: Yoruba Names|accessdate=December 5, 2014}} "F-eh-mi". Fẹ́mi can mean either "love me", or "marry me". However, the name "Fẹ́mi" is generally translated as "love me" and can sometimes be short for "Olúwáfẹ́mi", which means "The Lord loves me".

Biography

=Early life=

Emiola was born in Iowa City, Iowa, to a Filipina mother and a Nigerian father, then both PhD candidates at the University of Iowa. She lived her early life in the Philippines and in Nigeria before returning to the United States as a teenager. In Nigeria, she was educated at the Federal Government Colleges and the International School Ibadan.{{cite journal|journal=True Love West Africa|title=Fabulous Femi|page=41|date= November 2008|publisher=Media24|issue=43|url=http://www.femiemiola.com/press/2008/10/true-love-west-africa-finds-femi-emiola.html}} Both her parents are chemists.{{cite web|url=http://www.midiowanews.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=10879723&BRD=2700&PAG=461&dept_id=554188&rfi=8f |title=Acting Out: Ames Native Follows Path to Success with Determination |author=Jayne Bullock |date=January 28, 2004 |work=Ames Tribune |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714091352/http://www.midiowanews.com/site/index.cfm?newsid=10879723&BRD=2700&PAG=461&dept_id=554188&rfi=8f |archive-date=July 14, 2011 }}

She trained in theatre arts at Iowa State University and studied in New York City with the director and acting teacher, Wynn Handman, a former colleague of Sanford Meisner and the 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 helped the filmmaker, Tanya Steele, to win a Directors Guild East Coast Student Filmmaker Award.{{cite web|url= http://www.blackstarnews.com/?c=127&a=4770|title= Femi - Multi-Cultural Talent|author= Milton Allimadi|date=August 17, 2008|work = Black Star News}}{{cite web|url= https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0378263/awards|title= Awards for "The Living Silence" on Internet Movie Database|website= IMDb}}

Between 2006 and 2007, Emiola played Lani Walker, the assistant to the vindictive and psychotic Blythe Hunter portrayed by Tatum O'Neal in the My Network TV telenovela Wicked Wicked Games, which was premiered on December 6, 2006, and shown to completion (65 episodes) in March 2007.{{cite web|url= https://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:386864|title= Wicked Wicked Games|author= Hal Erickson|website= Allmovie}}

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.{{cite web|url= http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=5779088|title= Femi Emiola's biography|website= News 8}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
- {{cite news|url= https://movies.nytimes.com/person/1363836/Femi-Emiola?scp=1&sq=femi%20emiola&st=cse|department= Movies & TV Dept.|work= The New York Times|title= Femi Emiola filmography|access-date= February 7, 2017|archive-date= October 9, 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20121009065512/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/1363836/Femi-Emiola?scp=1&sq=femi%20emiola&st=cse|url-status= dead}}

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 includes 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.{{cite web|url= http://lucire.com/2008/1027ll0.shtml|title= An Angel in Los Angeles.|author= Jack Yan|date= 2008-10-27|work = Lucire}} The campaign was launched on June 9, 2008, and targeted affluent African-American women aged 25 to 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 supported by billboards and radio advertisements with Emiola's voice prompting listeners to visit the website.{{cite web|url= http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i95a8c8893ac9738a322fa04bae81384b|title= Toyota Drives Women Online|author= Steve Miller|date=June 11, 2008| work= BrandWeek}} 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 owner of a Toyota Camry 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 advertisements on BET.com and Essence.com also supported the campaign which ran from June 9 to 27, 2008. The game and the site were developed by 42 Entertainment in Pasadena, California. Burrell Communications, Chicago, is Camry's agency.

Filmography

=Film/Movie=

class="wikitable sortable"
Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" \| Notes
2002 \| Plugged In \| French Woman on Phone \| Short
2003 \| The Living Silence \| Lemon \| Short
2004 \| The Invisible Man \| Clarissa Bentley \| Short
2005 \| Blood Deep \| Eliza \|
2006 \| Disposable \| Nurse Becky \| Short
rowspan="2"\| 2009 \| Stuck \| Kylee \| Short
Black Girls Heart Charlie \| Pepé \| Short
2011 \| Textually Active \| Kylee \| Short

class="wikitable sortable"

Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

2002

| Plugged In

| French Woman on Phone

| Short

2003

| The Living Silence

| Lemon

| Short

2004

| The Invisible Man

| Clarissa Bentley

| Short

2005

| Blood Deep

| Eliza

2006

| Disposable

| Nurse Becky

| Short

rowspan="2"| 2009

| Stuck

| Kylee

| Short

Black Girls Heart Charlie

| Pepé

| Short

2011

| Textually Active

| Kylee

| Short

=Television=

class="wikitable sortable"
Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" \| Notes
rowspan="3"\| 2004 \| The Practice \| Sharon White \| Episode: "Police State"
Scrubs \| Young Woman \| Episode: "My Cake"
Las Vegas \| Young Woman \| Episode: "Silver Star"
2005 \| ER \| Lena \| Episode: "Middleman"
rowspan="2"\| 2006 \| The New Adventures of Old Christine \| Hostess \| Episode: "Open Water"
Ghost Whisperer \| Rachel Fisher \| Episode: "Fury"
2006-07 \| Wicked Wicked Games \| Lani Walker \| Main Cast
2008 \| Tyler Perry's House of Payne \| Sheila \| Episode: "The Beat Down"

class="wikitable sortable"

Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

rowspan="3"| 2004

| The Practice

| Sharon White

| Episode: "Police State"

Scrubs

| Young Woman

| Episode: "My Cake"