Stella Damasus Says ‘To Kill a Monkey’ Gave Her Career New Momentum

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Veteran Nollywood actress Stella Damasus says her role as Nosa in Netflix’s To Kill a Monkey gave her career renewed momentum, changed how audiences responded to her work and introduced her to viewers who knew little of the earlier chapters of her long screen career. Damasus discussed the impact of the Kemi Adetiba-created series during a Pulse Nigeria “Old Vs New” conversation, where she revisited clips from different periods of her filmography. Her account reveals that one of the most consequential recent roles of her career almost did not happen. A late self-tape changed the direction of the role According to Damasus, the character of Nosa had originally been conceived for a younger actress and casting was already far advanced. Her management representative encouraged her to send in a self-tape despite the timing, leaving her less than 24 hours to prepare an audition while she was in the United States. Because she was away from Nigeria, the audition had to be assembled remotely, with another actor reading opposite her over a video call. Damasus said she submitted the tape and then heard nothing for a period, leading her to assume the role had gone elsewhere. Instead, the production team eventually chose to reshape the character around her performance. That decision meant the actress did not simply step into an existing role; the role itself was adjusted after the filmmakers saw what she could bring to it. For an established performer, that kind of late-career audition story is significant. Damasus has decades of acting experience, but the process still required her to compete, adapt and prove herself through the same kind of self-tape process that has become increasingly common across global film and television casting. ‘To Kill a Monkey’ connected her with a new audience The series premiered on Netflix in July 2025 and follows a man who becomes drawn into cybercrime after reconnecting with a childhood friend. Damasus plays Nosa, the wife of the central character, in a cast that also includes Lilian Afegbai, William Benson, Bucci Franklin and Sunshine Rosman. Damasus said the reaction to the show followed her beyond Nigeria. Viewers in the United States, Canada and Ireland recognised her and repeated lines associated with the character, giving her a new kind of visibility after years in the industry. That response is an example of how streaming distribution has changed the lifespan of Nollywood careers. In the home-video and terrestrial television eras, an actor’s recognition could be strongly tied to particular Nigerian markets. A Netflix series can now place the same performance in front of viewers across multiple countries at the same time, allowing older and younger audiences to discover an actor simultaneously. An experienced actress was still pushed by the production Damasus also described the production as demanding, saying it forced her to revisit her craft despite her experience. She credited the standard of her co-stars and the production environment with pushing her to work at a high level. That detail matters because career longevity in acting is not only about name recognition. Screen performance changes with genre, directing style, production scale and audience expectations. A performer who has worked for decades still has to respond to new rhythms of storytelling, new cameras, new editing styles and younger casts. For Damasus, To Kill a Monkey appears to have provided exactly that kind of reset: a familiar actress entering a contemporary prestige-streaming production and being seen in a different light. Kemi Adetiba’s expanding screen universe The series also extends the body of work associated with filmmaker Kemi Adetiba, whose projects have helped shape the conversation around ambitious Nigerian screen productions. Her earlier work, including King of Boys , demonstrated the commercial appetite for Nigerian stories built with large characters, crime elements and strong visual identity. To Kill a Monkey approaches a different part of contemporary Nigerian life through cybercrime, relationships, ambition and moral compromise. Damasus’s character is part of the emotional structure surrounding those choices, which helps explain why the role resonated even though she was not originally the performer the production had in mind. Why the career revival matters Damasus’s experience reflects a wider shift in Nollywood. Streaming platforms, international premieres and cross-border distribution are creating second and third waves of visibility for actors whose careers began long before the current global expansion of Nigerian film. For younger viewers, a veteran performer can appear “new” if the first project they encounter is a recent streaming hit. For the actor, that can reopen conversations around casting, international work and the kinds of roles the industry is willing to offer. The actress’s own assessment is straightforward: To Kill a Monkey moved her career forward. The story behind the role makes that outcome more striking because it began with a late audition for a character that had already been imagined differently. Instead of being limited by the original casting brief, Damasus’s performance persuaded the production to rethink the character. More than a year after the series premiered, she says the audience response continues — evidence that one role, at the right moment and on the right platform, can reshape the public conversation around even a long-established career.