Name Christopher Okinda Role Actor | Movies The Constant Gardener | |
Parents Elizabeth Apiyo Aruwa, Alois Okinda | ||
Christopher Odhiambo Okinda (born 15 December 1980) is a prominent Kenyan actor, film director, producer, author and radio presenter. He featured in the Oscar award-winning movie The Constant Gardener working alongside Ralph Fiennes and White Maasai. He is the founder of the theatre film company Something Productions,www.somethingproductions.net, which produces plays in his mother's native Dholuo language, and is actively involved in the making of films and documentaries, the latter for both television and radio.
Biography
Born in the Kenyan Coastal city of Mombasa to Elizabeth Apiyo Aruwa and Aloise Okindah, he was brought up by and large by his mother as his father is polygamous and did not really feature in his life as a child.This however changed in the latter years of his life as he and his father became extremely close. He attended Aga Khan primary school in Parklands, Kenya, before moving to Our Lady of Mercy Primary School in 1992, then to St. Peter's Mumias Boys Primary in 1994. In 1996, he moved to St Mary's School, Yala, to start his high school education.
His tertiary education was in two phases. He's an alumnus of both Alliance Francaise and The University of Nairobi, where he studied Journalism and Media Studies.
He worked for five years as the senior presenter at Hot 96 gaining a religious following among radio lovers on his Drive Show, which in his last year he hosted alongside his old friend Cindy Ogana. He was also the creative director of Hot 96 fm in Kenya. He left Hot 96 in December 2014, shocking the radio fraternity. He then briefly worked for Urban Radio, a Kisumu based radio station in Kenya, before he was head hunted by Nation Media Group in late 2015 to host the Nation Drive. He again regained his religious listeners/ fans. NMG then retrenched a big percentage of its radio employees, in what they termed as doing away with the unprofitable business segment. He then went to Urban radio where he has been since early 2017. He is married and blessed with a set of twin girls and most recently a baby boy. Okinda lives in Nairobi but works in Kisumu.