(NewsLeader Weekend Xtra)
By Celestine Okafor (Editor-in-chief)
For veteran Nigerian actress Joke Silva, Tuesday, September 29, 2026, will be a birthday unlike any other.
As the celebrated actress, producer, director and theatre practitioner turns 65 years, the occasion comes only days after the death of her husband and lifelong professional partner, legendary actor, Olu Jacobs, who died on Wednesday, September 16 at the age of 84.
The family announced his death and appealed for privacy as it mourned. Thus, Silva's 65th birthday will carry two emotions at once — celebration and grief!
Born in Lagos on September 29, 1961, Silva grew up in a family that valued education and the arts. Her father was a lawyer and her mother a medical doctor, and she developed an early interest in performance. She later trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London before studying English and Literary Studies at the University of Lagos.
Her professional career began in the early 1980s, when Nigerian theatre and television were still the principal avenues for professional actors. She gradually established herself as one of the country's most respected performers, moving successfully between stage, television and film.
But Silva's story is much bigger than acting.
She and Olu Jacobs met through theatre in the early 1980s and married in 1985. Their relationship became one of Nigeria's most enduring entertainment partnerships. Together, they founded the Lufodo Group, which has been involved in theatre and film production, arts education and the management of Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos. For decades, the couple represented a remarkable combination of marriage and creative partnership.
Olu Jacobs' death, therefore, is not simply the loss of a husband for Silva; it also marks the end of one of the most celebrated partnerships in Nigerian performing arts.
Yet Silva has always possessed an identity and professional reputation of her own.
She has acted in numerous Nigerian and international productions, while also working as a director, producer, acting coach and cultural advocate. Her official biography records her involvement in arts development, mentorship and women's empowerment.
Her achievements have earned her several major honours, including the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) in 2014. She has also received multiple Africa Movie Academy Awards and other industry recognitions.
At 65, however, her most important contribution may increasingly be what she leaves behind. Silva has moved beyond being merely an actress to becoming a custodian of Nigerian theatre and a mentor to younger generations. Through education, production and institution-building, she has helped create opportunities for other performers.
Her 65th birthday today (Tuesday, September 29, 2026) therefore arrives as a moment of reflection. There will be memories of the girl who discovered acting, the young performer who trained abroad, the actress who conquered stage and screen, a wife who shared more than four decades with Olu Jacobs, and the cultural leader who helped build institutions beyond her own career.
The loss of Olu Jacobs has changed her personal story, but it has not ended it.
At 65 too, Joke Silva remains a living chapter in Nigeria's cultural history — carrying the memories of yesterday while preparing, perhaps, for another act on the stage of tomorrow. NNL.