Lere Paimo Says He Began Acting Before Pete Edochie

Lere Paimo says he started acting in 1958, countering Pete Edochie’s claim that his own career began in 1962

On Tuesday, 15 September 2026, veteran Yoruba actor Lere Paimo said he started acting in 1958, four years before colleague Pete Edochie says his own career began.

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Lere Paimo made the remark in an interview with actor Kunle Afod, posted on YouTube.

He was answering Pete Edochie’s claim that Pete Edochie started acting in 1962 at the age of 15, and Pete Edochie’s challenge to anyone who says they started earlier to prove it.

“I started acting in 1958. I met Hubert Ogunde, who was senior to me and others, and there were big movies produced back then,” Lere Paimo said. He said he was already working when Pete Edochie began.

Pete Edochie has pointed to a 1962 performance in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice as proof of how far back his career goes.

Lere Paimo pointed instead to the older Yoruba travelling-theatre tradition, and to the late Hubert Ogunde, as evidence that indigenous Nigerian theatre came before English-language film work.

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The exchange is about whose professional start came first, not about who is the greater actor.