Oreoluwa Rachael Awolowo, popularly known as Nora Awolowo, is a Nigerian film producer, cinematographer, director, and founder of Rixel Studios.
Nora began her career in the film industry in 2017, and by 2019, she had established her production company, “Rixel Studios,” and released her debut documentary. The short was screened at the Africa International Film Festival and marked the beginning of a pattern in which Nora used her work as a filmmaker to explore the personal and societal challenges faced by Nigerian women.
In 2021, she got her breakthrough in Nollywood with the documentary “Baby Blues: The Trials of Childbirth,” which she used to highlight the challenges of Nigerian women facing childbirth and postpartum depression. In 2023, the documentary was nominated for Best Documentary at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards, alongside another of her films, “Nigeria: The Debut.”
Nora worked as a cinematographer for the Netflix historical drama “Lisabi: The Uprising” in 2024 and received a nomination for Best Cinematographer at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA). In 2025, she worked as a producer and cinematographer on the thriller “Red Circle,” which became her most successful film and earned over 100 million at the box office, making her the youngest Nigerian filmmaker to reach that milestone.
In 2026, Nora spearheaded the record-breaking largest attendance at a single-location film screening in global history, with 51,000 people, as a producer and cinematographer of the film “The Black Market.”
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