‘Mark Angel paid Emmanuella N20,000 but was making $160,000 monthly’ – Denilson Igwe Accuses Mark Angel of Financial Exploitation

Comedian and skit maker Denilson Igwe has leveled serious allegations against his former collaborator, Mark Angel, accusing him of financial exploitation and withholding earnings from the Mark Angel Comedy venture. In a preview of the upcoming episode of ‘The Honest Bunch’ podcast, Igwe shared the details that led to his fallout with Mark Angel.

Igwe revealed that he was instrumental in starting Mark Angel Comedy, handling the filming of the content that Mark posted on Facebook. However, he claimed he was kept in the dark about the monetization of the Facebook page. According to Igwe, Mark did not share any of the profits from the monetization until 2016, when he gave Igwe a mere N50,000 after buying himself a car.

Furthermore, Igwe alleged that Mark was paying Emmanuella, one of the top stars of their comedy skits, only N20,000 monthly while the Facebook page was generating $160,000 monthly in revenue. “I was the one that started Mark Angel Comedy. I’m an orphan… Mark was the elder brother of the house. He was a security guard at Kilimanjaro, GRA, Port Harcourt,” Igwe stated.

“I was learning camera work from a man called Ifeanyi and borrowed one of his cameras. In our free time, we would shoot comic videos. Mark then suggested creating a Facebook page to post our comedy videos, which I agreed to, not knowing when it was monetized.

“I kept filming without any compensation. Then in 2014, Mark suddenly bought a car. When I asked how he could afford it, he lied that it was a gift. I hadn’t received a dime from the Mark Angel Comedy revenue.

“He started paying Emmanuella N20,000 monthly. Her parents, unaware of the value of her work, accepted this. No one knew how much revenue the comedy was generating. It wasn’t until 2016 that Mark gave me N50,000 and claimed the comedy wasn’t generating much revenue, even though we were making $160,000 monthly from Facebook.”

Mark Angel has yet to respond to these allegations. The revelations have sparked a conversation about transparency and fair compensation within creative collaborations.