How the ‘spoilt baby’ became famous actress

Harriet James @harriet86jim

“When mum came home with her, we thought that she was carrying a doll. She was to be named Brenda.

We thought that it was a perfect name for her. But some family members wanted her to be called Lorna.

Then my late father looked at her and said that she was very nice and that we should call her Nice,” says Catherine Njoki, elder sister to actress and producer Nice Githinji.

As Njoki recalls, being the last born and with a huge age gap of about 10 years, Nice has always, in her own words, been a spoilt child.

To date, even after her baby sister has made a name for herself as one of the celebrated actresses, Nice remains the baby of her family. 

Apart from their age difference, the two differ in personality. While Njoki or Kiki or Miss Strict, as they have nicknamed her, is strict, Nice is easy going, social and all-rounded.

Njoki is a public relations practisioner while Nice ventured in the acting world

“One thing I love the most about Nice is her honesty. She would rather keep quiet than lie.

I’m in public relations and Nice is not a person who will tell you to cover up things for her,” she says 

Nice’s acting career began while at Senior Chief Koinange High School, Kiambu from 1999 to 2002 where she joined drama club.

After her secondary education, the 35-year-old got acting roles for set books while she awaited to join campus.

“She still stayed with my mother. My mother would encourage her to never give up and desired to one day watch her on TV.

Unfortunately, she died in 2005 just before this dream came true,” she narrates.

When their mother died, Nice’s plans to go to Makerere University were cut short and the family was worried of her mental health since she was close to her.

But Nice pressed on and continued acting. “She was being paid Sh500 per show and they would go to three schools in a day,” says Njoki. 

Life on set

After camping around Phoenix theatre, never giving up, she finally got a role at Richard Stockwell’s Bad Blood.

Between 2007 and 2010, Nice appeared in several films such as All Girls Together, Benta, Formula X, Guy Center and Changing Times.

In 2012, her friend who had gotten a job at a local TV station alerted her of an audition for an upcoming show, Better Days.

She got the role of Nelly, a psycho woman who befriends the mother of her crush to get his attention. 

Her best moment was in 2017 when she was shooting Subira in Lamu.

“One of the producer, Vibeke Mwasa, recommended her to take up the major role since one of the actresses was not available.

It was both amazing and a challenge as she had to adapt and act as a 55-year-old mum,” narrates Njoki.

The year 2017 was a great one as she again landed a role in controversial Rafiki film.  

In 2007, her first film that she produced, All Girls Together won best lead actress at the Kalasha Awards for her role in the same film.

In addition, Nice has directed the film, Consequences, which grabbed the award of Best Short Film at the Coast Awards. 

The irony of winning 

Though winning awards is amazing, this presents another challenge. “You walk into an industry that awards you for your greatness and yet the better you become, the harder it is to get opportunities or even be paid what you deserve.

The more you win the less they hire you. Does that mean that I should be careful enough not to win? It a weird paradox,” says Nice.

In addition, it’s harder for a woman in the industry to negotiate for a better pay than their male counterparts. 

“I don’t know whether it’s the scarcity of male characters. Women are paid lower and might not be hired again if they ask for more,” Nice reveals.

This lack of opportunities is what drove her to produce her own webseries and also begin to mentor young artistes aged between 19 and 24 years.

“Covid- 19 brought her project to a standstill. But before that, she would call for auditions, looking for people who had never acted before and then train them for three months for free.

They would thereafter find stories to write for a stage play and that’s how the trainees would receive their first pay cheque,” she says  

 “Of late there is a lot of ‘fake it till you make it’ in the celebrity world. We need honest people, who will grow genuinely in their careers.

These ones who are using kiki (clout) before they launch something, end up depressed.

I’m proud of my sister because she chose the honest path. One grows gradually, but it’s worth it.

Right now, she has nephews and nieces who desire to be like her,” Njoki says in conclusion.