Spotlight: Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku

She won the Best Actress award at the African Movie Academy Awards 2010 for her role in “The Perfect Picture”. A native of Teshie in Accra, Naa was born on November 24 1988 to Mr Paul Mensah-Doku and Sarah Mensah-Doku, the second of four sisters.

She attended the Daras School from nursery to JSS and continued at the Benkum Secondary School in Larteh.

Nisirine Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku went into presenting when she was invited on several occasions as a guest on a Youth program “New Generation”, on TV Africa. She later presented “Day Break Entertainment”, She went to host “Day Break” and became a co-host to Okyeame Quophi on TV Africa’s variety show “Sounds Splash!”

She is now working permanently with an events and production company Charter House, organizes of Ghana Music Awards, as a TV presenter and producer.

Talking about how she ended up in movies, Naa said she accompanied a friend to an auditioning session but ended up being auditioned herself and being picked for consideration.

After waiting for what seemed like forever, she said, the call finally came through and she earned for herself a role in ‘Scorned’ only to be followed with a bigger one in The ‘Perfect Picture’. She has since featured in “Double” produced by K.SM, and now “Check Mate”.

“I was thrilled when I received the call the second time to feature in The Perfect Picture. I had no idea I was going to act alongside big names in movies like Chris Attoh, Jackie Appiah and Adjetey Annang so when I was given the script I gave it my best shot. It was quite challenging.

“In order to fully convey the message contained in the movie, I read the script to the best of my understanding. Shirley is one good director. She helped me every step of the way, little wonder the film came out so well,” she said.

One of the challenges she faced before the shooting of the movie was combining the preparation with writing her journalism school exams and attending rehearsals. She was successful on both counts.

Naa Ashorkor believes that one needs not be a professional to be a good actor. What is needed is the commitment and willingness to do it.

This is how she put it: “It is not easy but it can be done. It’s work and fun at the same time but acting is anything that anyone can do, once you have a good director and a good movie production house.

On the 19th and 20th of February 2010, together with others, Naa embarked on the show to mark the ‘World Vagina Day’ aimed at popularizing the usage of the word ‘vagina’ and demystify the contempt associated with it.

When not working, she enjoys watching movies, playing word games and spending time with her family.

Credit:The Mirror/Peacefmonline/Daily Guide/GhanaCelebrities.Com