Bolanle Austen-Peters
Bolanle Austen-Peters (born 4 February 1969), is a lawyer, a multiple award-winning movie director/producer, theater director/producer and cultural entrepreneur. She is the founder and artistic director of BAP Productions and the arts and culture center Terra Kulture in Lagos. She has been described by the CNN as the "woman pioneering theater in Nigeria", named one of the most influential women in Africa by Forbes Afrique and been recognised with several awards for her contribution to the arts. She is also the founder of Terra Academy for the Arts in partnership with Mastercard Foundation, empowering young people. She had previously worked with the United Nations. Early life and career Austen-Peters was born in 1969 in Ibadan, the Oyo State in the south-western region of Nigeria. She is the daughter of Emmanuel Afe Babalola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and Rtd Major, Mrs Bisi Babalola. She gained a BA in Law from the University of Lagos and an MA from London School of Economics and Political Science. In the 1990s she worked as a lawyer in Afe Babalola and Co Barristers and Solicitors and with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Switzerland . In 2003, she founded Terra Kulture, an