IF YOU are zealous about Ghana’s movie industry and have watched the movie ‘Scorned’ by Sparrow Productions, you will notice that TV Africa presenter, Naa Ashorkor Mensah-Doku is one of the reigning actresses to watch out for in Ghana’s growing movie industry.

Naa was one of the few fresh faces who came on board Ghana’s movie train last year.

Unlike most of her colleagues who had to struggle through TV programmes before they finally hit mainstream acting, hers is pretty an easy one. Her first movie role was in a top-rated movie and she played her role better, even though some consider her a novice in the area of acting.
In ‘Scorned’, she played a supporting role to industry giant Kwame Sefa Kayi, the host of Peace FM’s Kokrokoo morning show, and she was perfect.

“That role seems to me more like my life. It was pretty easy and fun. I was actually having fun playing that role,” she told BEATWAVES in an exclusive interview over the weekend. According to Naa, she was more relaxed in front of the cameras because of her constant appearance on TV.

This year, the 20-year-old pretty presenter cum actress is making another appearance in Sparrow Productions’ epic movie, ‘The Perfect Picture’ in which she once again displayed remarkable acting skills alongside Lydia Forson and Jackie Appiah.

Naa told BEATWAVES that she least expected she would go into acting as becoming a broadcast journalist or a lawyer were her foremost career priorities.

“The whole acting thing sounds appealing to me. I hadn’t planned for it but I like to grab opportunities when they come my way. I don’t like to let things go; unless of course they are against my morals. I thought it was a cool offer. And there was an opportunity to get to know other people and probably discover myself better.”

About how she got into acting, Naa said she was accompanying a friend to an auditioning by Sparrow Productions when she decided to fill out a form to try her luck. “I actually went there to escort someone, and then they were like I should try it, so I went and auditioned and that was it.”

Naa, a former student of Benkum Secondary School in Larteh, is currently in her third year at the Ghana Institute of Journalism studying BA in Communication Studies. She is the second of four sisters.

Her parents are staunch Christians like Naa herself.

Naa hit the limelight a year-and-half ago after she was invited as a guest on a show on TV Africa.

The presenter of the show had to write an exam and they needed someone to sit in for her. Naa was called to handle the show and that was how she remained with TV Africa.

Naa mentioned one of her role models as Michel Obama, wife of US President. “If I have the opportunity to be like somebody, she is the person I want to be like.” This is because she is the wife of the first Black President of the United States of America and fashion conscious.

In Ghana, she admires Mrs. Dorothy Gordon, CEO of the Kofi Anan International ICT Centre, for her humility and hard work.

By Francis Addo