Akofa Edjeani Asiedu

EARLY LIFE

Akofa Edjeani was born on 20 February 1969 and hails from Avatime Vane (also referred to as Vame Avatime), an aboriginal Guan settlement in the Volta Region of Ghana. She attended Mawuli School for her secondary education, where she joined the drama club and began acting. She received early recognition, including a Best Actress award from the school. She later pursued higher education at the University of Ghana’s School of Performing Arts, specializing in Theatre Arts (Drama), and obtained a certificate in Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 1995.

CAREER

Edjeani has been acting professionally on stage, television, and film since 1987. She first gained widespread recognition playing Annette in the popular Ghanaian TV series Jagger Pee in the late 1980s and later appeared in Ultimate Paradise in the 1990s. She has starred in numerous Ghanaian and Nigerian-Ghanaian productions since the mid-1990s. Selected credits include: For Better For Worse (1995) Jennifer (1998) When the Heart Decides (1997) Expectations and Expectations 2 (1998–1999) Divine Love (2004) My Mother’s Heart 1 & 2 (2005) I Sing of a Well (2009; she also co-produced) The Cursed Ones (2015) Children of the Mountain (2016) Sidechic Gang (2018) Lucky (2018) Azali (2018) Dark Spot (2019) Gold Coast Lounge (2020) Aloe Vera (2020) Charade (2021) Shades of Grace (2023) Detor: The Rise of A Warrior Hunter (2024) Not My Daughter, Pieces of Me, Fools in Love, and Can’t Say Mother. As a producer, her short film Not My Daughter (addressing female genital mutilation) won Best Short Film at the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in 2008 and received additional recognition, including selection for INPUT in South Africa and an award from the Women Arts Institute (WAI) Ghana. I Sing of a Well (which she starred in and co-produced) won three awards plus the Best Jury Award at the AMAA in 2010, as well as recognition at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles. She has served as a juror for the semi-final judging of the 2009 International Emmy Awards (Asia/Africa/Middle East region), been inducted into the Golden Movie Walk of Fame, and received special recognition awards including the GPA Awards (Global Professional Achievers) Ghana. She is an alumna of the U.S. International Visitor Leadership Program and has been a member of the Interim Governing Council of the Ghana Culture Forum.

PERSONAL LIFE

She was married to Robert Asiedu for more than 20 years; the couple later separated and divorced amicably. In a July 2018 interview on The Delay Show with Deloris Frimpong Manso, she confirmed the divorce, noted that they remained on friendly terms, and shared that she was dating and open to remarrying, stating she still felt young at 49. She has two children. She is the younger sister of Constance Ama Emefa Edjeani-Afenu. Outside of acting, she has run Fali’s Hot Pot, a restaurant in Kanda, Accra, which she established years earlier to support her family. She has spoken about balancing her creative career with entrepreneurship and family responsibilities.

In August 2026, she was appointed Ghana’s Investment and Tourism Envoy to Türkiye. She has described the role as one she accepted with humility and a sense of duty, with a focus on promoting Ghana’s creative industries (music, film, fashion, art, and design), tourism, and investment opportunities, while strengthening Ghana–Türkiye relations and creating opportunities for Ghanaians. She continues to advocate for quality storytelling, African culture, and the development of the Ghanaian film industry. Her work spans socially conscious themes and versatile character roles, contributing significantly to both Ghanaian (Ghallywood) and broader African cinema.