Monrovia – With nearly seventy movies under his belt, veteran Nollywood Ghallywood actor Gregory Artus Frank has embarked on a new venture to make African movies more accessible to viewers and fans in his homeland, Liberia with the dawn of MonroTV.
“It’s been a longing desire of mine to showcase African acting to not just my homeland but throughout the continent,” Artus, who is President and CEO of MonroTV.” told FrontPageAfrica during a recent chat a local restaurant.
“When I visited Australia, my partner and I were having discussion and we were brainstorming ideas on how to make it easier for Liberians in the Diaspora to have access to Liberian content. So, we decided to create a channel and that’s why we named it MonrovTV. This name is derived from Monrovia.”
Artus says the goal for MonroTV is to operate as a full functioning TV channel, with a lineup that includes soap operas, talk shows, game shows, movies and much more. “Movies, gospel and secular music videos are only programs that are currently being displayed on MonroTV,” he says.
The beauty he says is the 24-hour access the online channel offers. “Viewers can access MonroTV 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They just to the website and log in. There are two options for subscriptions – 3 months for 9.99 or 12 months for 34.96.”
MonroTV was established on January 2016 with the idea of showing African content across the world, especially for Liberians in the Diaspora. It is an online channel for viewers to see Liberian and African movies at a discounted price. While other channels are charging almost $10 per month, MonroTV made it possible for Liberians to view over 500 movies for only $3.33 per month.
MonroTV has produced five movies, which includes, but not limited to Mr. IBU in Liberia and LIB Players. We get our content from Liberian producers and surrounding African countries. They submit their movies
Artus says MonroTV and the movies are shown for the duration of the agreed upon time. “There are teams placed in Australia, Liberia and other African countries to meet the growing demands of the channel.
The Liberian-Egyptian actor attended college at AME University obtaining a degree in Human Resources Management. He began his career in Liberia before branching off to Ghana where he worked at Venus Films, then eventually moved on to shoot movies in Nigeria.
After acting in minor roles in Liberia, Artus wrote, directed, and starred in the movie Juetey (Children’s Business). In 2008, Jutey won six awards including best writer, best-supporting actress, and movie of the year. Juetey was Frank’s first attempt at screenwriting.
Since then he has filmed more than 100 movies. He has been nominated for many awards and won the Best International Actor award for 2012 at the African Academy Awards. He also won the Hall of Grace Award 2013. One of his best-known films is 2012’s Order of the Ring.
In 2015, Artus was presented with the Face of Africa Award as a well-known actor, receiving several awards, including the Humanitarian Figure Award from the Continental Award Committee for his contributions to the fight against Ebola.