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For DAVIDO, BURNA Boy, WIZKID, NAIRA MARLEY
Have you heard about Director Pink before? She is a young popular Music Video director. Let’s tell you about her. This is the story of a 26 year-old lady named Praise Onyeagwalam, who is known by her professional name, Director Pink. She has directed music videos for the likes of Wizkid, Naira Marley, Davido, Burna Boy, Mercy Chinwo and many more.
Pink is an award-winning Nigerian filmmaker, cinematographer, and Director shaping global visuals of Afrobeats. Breaking barriers in a male-dominated industry, she has amassed hundreds of millions of views by directing iconic music videos for top artists like Wizkid, Davido, Burna Boy, and Chike.
She was born in Lagos. Director Pink initially aspired to be an actress, but after facing repeated exploitation and humiliation at auditions, decided to take control of her own creative destiny and pivoted to directing and cinematography. She launched her career in 2020 and quickly made a name for herself with her distinctive and vibrant storytelling.
Her breakout project was the highly successful video for Chike’s “Running to You” (featuring Simi). Since then, she has directed numerous mega-hits, including: Egwu” by Chike & Mohbad”Do I” by Phyno & Burna Boy”Abracadabra (Remix)” by Rexxie, Wizkid, & Naira Marley.
Director Pink is also the founder of Pinkline Films and the Pinkline Academy, an initiative designed to train emerging African creatives, foster women-led creative projects, and provide hands-on production skills.
Her video for the song “Egwu” by Afrobeats stars Chike and Mohbad has received 160 million views on YouTube since it was posted two years ago, shortly after Mohbad’s death, at the age of 27.
“Mohbad was alive when I got the song,” Pink told CNN. “When he passed, I wanted the video to be a tribute to him and to focus on unity.” It won her the 2025 Headies Award for Best Music of Video of the Year.
Pink studied Economics at the University of Lagos before moving into filmmaking. After studying at the London Film Academy, in 2021, at 22, she released the short horror film “Lady Koi Koi” on YouTube, based on an urban legend about a vengeful ghost haunting school dormitories, with the sound of its red high-heeled shoes tapping as it walks around the halls.
In addition to directing, Pink founded the production company Pinkline Films and now designs her own sets, including for the video to Yemi Alade’s 2024 single “Tomorrow” — the song that earned Alade her first solo Grammy nomination in 2025.
Pink won The Best Music Video Category at the All Africa Music Awards in 2023 and was nominated for the Best Music Video award at The Headies the same year for the video of “Spell (Remix)” by Chike & Oxlade. But she says winning the Music Video of the Year award at the 2025 Headies — Nigeria’s biggest music awards — was a special moment. “It opened the doors for so many other women to really see that they could really, really do this,” she said.
In a male-dominated industry, she said that others often assume her videos were made by a man. Helping women into the industry was one of the motivations behind her starting Pinkline Academy in 2023. The initiative trains young African creatives in filmmaking and fosters women-led creative projects and industry access, as well as providing production skills and mentorship.
“I really want to resonate and relate with women,” she said.
“There are really no young women in the field, especially our age bracket. It was really sad to see and I was like, you know what? I really need to give. I really need to see how we can create opportunities for the next generation (of women).
“A lot of us really depended on YouTube tutorials. Pinkline Academy is really bringing out the next generation of creatives across Africa.”
Already widely recognized as Africa’s most successful female music video director, the next step for Pink is directing movies in Nigeria’s Nollywood movie industry.
“I’ve aways wanted to tell stories and there are film projects coming up soon,” she said. “There is also one in the works as well. It’s a very beautiful story. I can’t wait for people out there to see it.”
She founded Pinkline Films, a Lagos-based production company that produces music videos, branded content, and short films.
Onyeagwalam also founded Pinkline Academy, a filmmaking training programme developed to train emerging African creatives, foster women-led creative projects and provide practical production skills, mentorship, and industry access.
In one or her interviews she revealed how she was introduced to Clearance Peters. “A guy named The Alien introduced me to Clarence Peters. He wanted a female director and an all-female crew to work on Chike and Mayorkun’s “If You No Love” music video. We couldn’t get an all-female crew to work on the video, but we found amazing women to shoot the video and it came out great. From that moment, I kept pushing myself more. Working with Clarence pushed me more. Clarence put in a good word for me to Chike and his manager to shoot “Roju” and “Running to You”.
She also revealed what makes her different in turning Music to story telling. She said,
I listen to the song and try to understand the song’s message. Then I speak to the artiste and try to get into the thought process behind the song. I ask questions like, “What did you have in mind for the video?” and “What were you thinking about when you made the song?” When I get the answers, I try to understand the message and think of keywords. After that, I try to get a “creative me time”, where I try to get in the mood of the video, because I want to be soaked in the song. For instance, if I am shooting a romantic music video, then I’ll be in a romantic phase or if I am shooting a gangsta video, I’ll be in a gangsta phase. I approach my creative process carefully. From concept development to final production, I always give myself enough space to think about the video. I create the mood board and send it over to the artistes in case they want to add anything or take something out.
Aside from Music Director, she is also a Movie producer? Yes! “
I have always said that my first film will be a horror film. I want to explore making horror films in the future because I am a director who likes to play with emotions. It was a happy film, but at the end of the day, it was still sad. That’s a hard emotion to communicate. Horror, as a genre, gives me a lot of challenges. I love the challenge. It is one thing to make people scared, it is another thing to realise that they are scared. I created Lady Koi Koi (The Arrival) because I wanted to make something the audience could relate to. I enjoy shooting music videos so that’s what we are focusing on for now”
She also spoke on how to identify good music videos and what makes it different from other videos. “As a director, I believe you should find a niche. Some directors are influenced by the work of other directors, but sometimes they get carried away and forget that they are different people with different backgrounds. They get soaked into other people’s work and don’t find themselves and their strong points. That’s why you see music videos that are alike. To stand out, you need to understand yourself. There are millions of people all over the world and everyone has a different personality. Music video directors should let their uniqueness reflect in the videos, but certain elements from their previous videos shouldn’t be repetitive in their future videos. There should be a creative change in every music video”, she revealed.
–Isaac Abimbade
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