Israel Henry got his start playing Romeo in Best Friends in the World, the youth focused web series produced by Neptune3 Studios, the media company founded by sisters Jemima and Jesimiel Damina in Uyo. The series went on to trend number one on YouTube on several occasions and earned Neptune3 Studios a Creator Award. Henry was still a student in Calabar at the time, balancing school with an acting dream he had not yet tested outside a script he wrote and submitted himself.
Years later, he has moved from that web series into mainstream Nollywood, appearing in films including Wild Heart, On The Wings of Love, Loving You, and Twisted Love, and starring opposite Angel Unigwe in both Kim’s Melody and 20 Days to Valentine, two films released in the same year.
In this interview, Henry talks about what it took to build a career from a YouTube set in Uyo to Nollywood film sets, the discipline Neptune3 Studios instilled in him early, his on screen chemistry with Angel Unigwe, and where he sees himself in the next five years.
“Honestly, it was overwhelming in the best way possible,” he says, remembering his first days on Best Friends in the World. “At the time, I was a student in Calabar just trying to balance school and this dream of becoming an actor.” When he wrote the role of Romeo and submitted it, he had no real sense of how big the series would become. What followed was a crash course in the craft. “Every day on set felt like a classroom,” he says.
The moment it truly hit him came quietly, not on set, but in public. “The moment I realised the series was becoming a big deal was when people started recognising me as Romeo,” he says. That recognition changed something in him. It gave him the confidence to believe acting could be more than a passion project, that it could actually become his career.
Neptune3 Studios built its identity on restraint, refusing graphic content or hypersexualised storytelling in favour of honest stories about young Nigerians growing up. For an actor cutting his teeth inside that structure, the limitations became a teacher of their own. “Working within those boundaries taught me the power of subtle storytelling,” Henry says. “We couldn’t rely on shock value or controversial scenes to capture attention. Instead, we had to focus on truth, emotion, and character development.” It pushed him to lean harder into expression and timing, and it taught him that audiences do not connect with perfect characters. They connect with relatable ones.
“That experience shaped my approach to acting even today,” he says. “I learned that if a performance is honest enough, people will connect with it regardless of the genre or platform.”
Asked about the difference between the web series world and mainstream Nollywood, Henry points mainly to scale. “In the web series world, there is often a smaller team and a more intimate working environment. Everyone is involved in almost every part of the process, and there’s a family like atmosphere,” he says. Mainstream productions move differently, with bigger expectations, more departments, tighter schedules, and a broader audience scrutinising every choice. Still, he insists the core of the job has not changed. “My job is still to bring authenticity to the role.”
That authenticity has been tested most visibly opposite Angel Unigwe, with whom he starred in both Kim’s Melody and 20 Days to Valentine. Chemistry, he says, is not something you perform. It is something you build. “Chemistry starts with trust. You have to feel comfortable enough with your scene partner to be vulnerable and honest in front of the camera,” he says. Working with Unigwe across multiple projects gave them a shorthand, an understanding of each other’s rhythm that let scenes move more naturally. But familiarity has its own trap. “You don’t want to become too comfortable,” he says. “The challenge is finding new ways to connect with the person on screen so that each project feels fresh for the audience.”
Asked whether the leap from youth focused web content to mainstream Nollywood required him to unlearn anything, Henry resists the framing. Nothing was discarded, he says, only built upon. “Best Friends in the World gave me a strong foundation in natural and relatable storytelling, and that foundation still serves me today.” What shifted was his relationship with complexity. Mainstream films demand deeper emotional conflict, more mature themes, and characters layered in ways youth web series rarely require. “I had to become more flexible and willing to explore different emotional spaces,” he says. “Every project I’ve worked on has added another tool to my toolbox as an actor.”
Asked to look five years ahead, Henry first corrects the record on where he comes from. He is not from Calabar, nor is he Efik, despite having studied at the University of Calabar. He is from Okobo Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State, and his acting story did not begin on a YouTube set at all. It began in church, as a drama member, long before Neptune3 Studios or Romeo entered the picture.
“Five years from now, I see myself doing work that reaches audiences far beyond Nigeria while still staying connected to my roots,” he says. His ambitions extend past performance alone. “I think about becoming a better producer, creator, director and actor, taking on more challenging roles, and telling stories that people remember long after they’ve watched them.”
He sees Nollywood entering a genuinely exciting phase, with global attention on Nigerian stories at a level he believes has never existed before, and he wants to be part of that shift while carrying his state with him. “My goal is to be part of that movement, to represent where I come from, Akwa Ibom State, keep improving my craft, and hopefully inspire other young people who are starting out the same way I did,” he says.
His closing thought sounds like a man who has already mapped out the road ahead. “The dream is simple, keep growing, keep learning, and become one of the actors people can trust to deliver great performances no matter the project.”
