Denilson Igwe, a former member of the Mark Angel comedy crew, has come forward in a viral podcast video with allegations of financial exploitation against his former colleague, Mark Angel.
Igwe claims he founded the Mark Angel Comedy YouTube channel originally. This popular channel has amassed over nine million subscribers since its inception in 2013.
The revelation came in a teaser for an episode of “The Honest Bunch” podcast. Denilson Igwe spoke about how he initiated the comedy project using a camera he stole from his photography mentor. He alleges that Mark Angel, who he describes as “the elder brother of the house,” suggested creating a Facebook page for their content. However, Igwe claims to not know when the page was monetized and continued producing content without receiving compensation.
He started to get suspicious about the channel’s earnings when Mark Angel purchased a car in 2014. Back then, the latter denied spending a dime to get one and claimed that it had been a gift. According to Igwe, the comedy channel was generating approximately $160,000 monthly at its peak. Yet he only received his first payment of ₦50,000 from Mark Angel in 2016.
One of the most shocking claims made by Denilson Igwe concerns the compensation of Emmanuella, a child star featured in many of the comedy skits.
Igwe said that Emmanuella was paid only ₦20,000 monthly, despite the channel’s substantial revenue. To support his allegations, he has released a document outlining the agreement between Mark Angel and Emmanuella. The document states:
“The Manager shall pay to the Artist a monthly upkeep of N20,000.00 (Twenty Thousand Naira) only. The Parties hereby agree that a Guardian ad-litem shall be appointed in the person of Barr. (Mrs.) Jacinta O. Chinkere-Nwogu who shall be contacted on all issues concerning the Artist including travels outside Nigeria.”
He shared this evidence on Instagram, captioning it,
“Evidence plenty I’m not chasing clout. Just that some people felt they were rich and influential. Forgetting days of little beginning, all the suffering, the struggle, the prayers for a better tomorrow now the tomorrow don come.”
As of the time of writing, Mark Angel is still yet to release a public response to these allegations. Meanwhile, Denilson Igwe now has a comedy channel called the “Denilson Igwe Comedy” which currently has more than 300,000 subscribers.
