Regina Askia Biography (Career, Films, Awards)

Regina Askia Williams is a Nigerian-born, American-based family nurse practitioner (FNP), healthcare and educational activist, television producer, writer, and public speaker, who found fame as an actress and model.

biography

Regina Askia was born in Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria on 17th may 1967.

Personal life

She is married to American Rudolph ‘Rudy’ Williams, nephew of Ron Everette and grandson of Fess Williams; together the couple has two children – daughter Teesa Olympia and son Rudolph Junior. Askia-Williams’s other daughter, model Stephanie Hornecker, is from a previous relationship.

She currently lives in America with her family, and is now a family nurse practitioner practicing in New York City.

Career

She became a model after she gained public recognition in Nigeria as a beauty pageant winner. As a model, she appeared in several Nigerian print and television commercials including

Chicken George fast food
Kessingsheen Hair Care
Boutique chain Collectibles

She hosted a fashion show at the Nigerian Embassy in New York City to raise awareness for the plight of children’s social amenities in Nigeria in 2005. And in 2006, she hosted a charity fashion show at Lehman College in the Bronx, New York, which displayed the creations of top African designers and her own label Regine Fashions.

She starred in several “Nollywood” films during the 1990s and early 2000s, most of which were filmed to be released directly to video, reaching a wide audience in Nigeria and elsewhere in Africa such as Tanzania and Ghana. She became one of Nigeria’s biggest acting celebrities. Her films, and other Nollywood films are regularly broadcast by Nigerian television networks, including ITV, StarTV, and the state broadcaster TVT. She was compared to Elizabeth Taylor for her fame, and was paid around N300,000 for a starring role, on par with other top Nigerian actresses. She also maintained an active interest in supporting medical outreach in Nigeria.

In one interview, she described a project she participated in:The project is an Afro-American project titled Renaissance Network Africa which involves three respectable African doctors on board … our aim is to bring back Africa’s glory by paving way for the black Americans that believe Africa is their root to have good relationships with Africans in the Diaspora. This avenue will pave way for Africans and Americans of African origin to have good business relationships. It will also make it easy for investments, as this is the only way we can help rebuild the image of the Nigerian home-front.

She still works on promoting greater collaboration between Africa and its diaspora with her fashion shows as well as medical missions to Africa.