The name Leona Mazur might not ring a bell but, when you mention Miss Pepeiye – the famous original and first Miss Pepeiye of Papa Ajasco Family – you get the attention of people. The Nigerian-American currently based in the Neitherand with her family creatively played her role so well in the sitcom produced by Wale Adenuga’s Production in the early 2000s.
One of the pioneers of the Nigerian Fashion Show Industry, Leona was a famous fashion runway model who featured in the Nigerian fashion shows both in Paris and Milan. In 2001, she won for Zizi Cardo, the Nigerian Fashion Show Designer of the Year Award. She also modelled for some prominent Nigerian designers like Mon Ami, Zizi Cardo, Frank Osodi, Modella, and Remi Lagos Of blessed memory, to mention a few.
Since it’s been 12 years she left Nigeria, when asked what she’s been up to, she said: “I’ve been around the world I’ve been travelling, as you know, I got married to an American diplomat and I decided to sit somewhere and complete my education. There’s no way I can go back to school travelling from one country to the other. So I decided to go back to the United States, and there’s where I’ve been for the past 9 years completing my education and, of course, I have kids, two lovely boys, and they also go to school in the US. I’ve just been developing and growing as a person. Going back to school was something I wanted to do for a long time, because I did my National Diploma in Mass Communication with the focus in journalism in Nigeria.
When I went back to the US I had to pick up something I could do without a lot of frustration, and that was learning business all over again. The standard there is different, although my Wolex Polytechnic credentials helped get me in. That’s what I’ve been doing and now I’m back, done with school and back to start my own thing, give back to the country that helped live that dream. I tell people to forget the American Dream, there’s the Nigerian Dream. The Nigerian dream is having your hands tied behind your back and your eyes blindfolded and somebody asking you to produce something. We Nigerians are geniuses, because with the situation that we are faced, we still come out resilient and surviving; it’s amazing!”
Speaking on her comeback to the entertainment industry which has changed since she left, Leona outlines her plan to cope as thus: “When I was modelling and acting, sometimes you work and don’t get paid; sometimes you go on set all day without food or drink and at the end of the day you are told ‘sorry, you can’t do your shoot today.’ Back then I and other models and actors that I know had the passion. It was something that we enjoyed doing, the money isn’t the goal, and the goal was to express our talent and creativity. What I am seeing now is more money-focused or fame-focused. Either way, Nigerians are doing pretty well. Our actors and actresses put us on the world map”.