Juliet: Acting Today, Singing Tomorrow

Of late, pretty actress Juliet Ibrahim Safo is struggling to keep the smile off her face. And the reason? She just won the Movie Personality Award organised by City People Magazine held in Lagos, Nigeria, on July 18.

The award is given to the movie star who dominated discussions in the entertainment industry in the last year for many reasons.

Having been nominated alongside top actresses Jackie Appiah, Yvonne Nelson and Lydia Forson, Juliet says, “I’m extremely grateful and excited about this award. It is really going to spur me on to give my all in my acting career.”

Prior to the award, the same magazine had, in May this year, awarded Juliet for her Outstanding Performance in the Movie Industry at a ceremony held in Accra.

Another feather in her cap which keeps Juliet smiling is the fact that she got married to her sweetheart, Kwadwo Safo, a pilot and son of the Head of the Kristo Asafo Church, Apostle Kwadwo Safo, some time this year.

At the prime age of 24, Juliet has achieved a lot for herself. Aside from starring in about 50 movies to date, she is also very business-minded and runs a beauty salon, Envoque Beauty Parlour, at Osu; a modelling agency, Dolfins Agency, and a production house, Jewels Productions. She plans to open a unisex boutique soon.

Juliet’s fans should watch out because she has another talent which she is yet to showcase. She loves to sing and, according to her, she already has three songs she is working on and will come out with an album very soon.

Taking The Mirror down memory lane on how she got into acting, Juliet said when she was growing up, she had always wanted to be in the spotlight.

So, as little girl then living in Cote d’Ivoire, she performed playlets and talent shows in school.

When she returned to Ghana in 2000, she realised that the movie industry was picking up and so she decided to give it a try.

Consequently, she was introduced to an actor and movie producer, Jake Aernan, who was producing a series on the life of refugees. She starred in them, but there was a setback and the series never saw the light of day.

She again participated in another series which also did not materialise.

Juliet, however, did not lose hope and so while furthering her education at the Ghana Institute of Languages, she participated in the institute’s beauty pageant, which she won in 2005.

“Winning the pageant opened a lot of doors for me. I started modelling for GTP, Woodin, Joyce Ababio and other designers, as well as Soft Sheen Carson, and appeared in some commercials,” she said.

She again participated in another pageant, Miss Francophonie, in 2006 and although a winner could not be declared because of a setback, a judge who noticed her potential later hinted her of an auditioning by Venus Films and that was where her journey to stardom started.

So what was intended to be a try out for a movie role turned out to be the unearthing of Juliet’s acting talent. She got to play her first movie role as Naomi, the girlfriend of a notorious armed robber, in the flick, Crime to Christ, alongside Majid Mitchel.

Juliet’s talent and passion got noticed by industry players and the movie roles started flooding in for her. So far, she has more than 50 films to her credit — Ghanaian and Ghana-Nigeria collaborations — the notable among them being Midnight Call, Marriage of Sorrows, In the Eyes of my Husband, Queen’s Pride, Naked Weapon, Yankee Boys, Honour my will, Royal Storm, Hidden, Blood Fight and Dead End.

In all of these, she has proved her versatility and the fact that she is a force to reckon with in the movie industry.

Her latest movies, 4Play, DNA Test and Enemy of my Soul, have received great reviews, while Millions will be premiered on August 6.

According to Juliet, her husband is not worried about her career and that he is very supportive.

“We watch my movies together, read the scripts and he is my biggest critic,” she said.

Asked if her husband was not worried about her playing romantic roles, she said she and her husband had an agreement on how to shoot certain roles and so he was not worried.

Juliet has big dreams and hopes to become one of the best writers, producers, directors and actresses in the not-too- distant future.

Already, she is working on her first movie which will come out this year.

Juliet is the eldest daughter of Hussein Ibrahim, a Lebanese, and Elizabeth Ibrahim, a half Liberian, half Ghanaian. Born in Accra, she left for Lebanon and then Cote d’Ivoire. Her three other siblings are Sonia, Nabil and Nadia.

She returned to Ghana in the latter part of 2000 and later attended the Ghana Institute of Languages, graduating with a diploma in Spanish and English in 2006.

She also obtained a diploma in Advertising and Marketing from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2009 and is presently offering an online course in acting.

She has plans of furthering her education at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).