Award winning veteran actress producer director and acting coach, Joke Silva since 1981 has worked on the platform of theatre, film, television and radio.
She trained at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts and has a Degree in English from the University of Lagos.
In recent times Joke has enjoyed working on Hearword produced and directed by Ifeoma Fafunwa. The play has toured Harvard Dance Centre, American Repertory Theater both in Boston. Frascati Theatre Amsterdam, The Public Theater NewYork, Segerstrom Centre Califonia, Thalia theater Hamburg, Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh to name a few.
Joke Silva has featured in many award-winning films which includes: - Peter Schwabach’s THE SECRET LAUGHTER OF WOMEN; Kunle Afolayan’s PHONE SWAP, Jeta Amata and Scott Cleverdon’s THE AMAZING GRACE, Mahmood Ali Balogun’s TANGO WITH ME, Izu Ojukwu’s WHITE WATERS, POTATO POTHATO, Niyi Akinmolayan CHIEF DADDY, THE SETUP and Namaste Wahala to name a few.
She has several awards including 5 African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA), SOLIDRA Award for Performing Art; Best of Africa Award from Alexander Forbes.
Joke co-founded Lufodo Group with her husband Olu Jacobs specializing in Productions of Drama Content and an Academy of Performing Arts. The production arm, Lufodo Productions curated Nigeria's Artistic expression at the 2012 Olympics with three plays - The Lion and the Jewel, The Naming Ceremony and The King Must Dance Naked, a Film Festival and a Poetry Festival. They also curated the Nigerian Creative Arts Exchange in Paris 2018 with a Fashion Show, Nigerian music, Art Exhibition and the dance drama Fear Abides With Me by Abioye Ronke Taiwo. Lufodo Productions over the years has produced plays at the National Theatre, Glover Memorial Hall and Muson Centre. To their credit are groundbreaking plays like THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, DIGGING FOR GOLD - an adaptation of Oscar Wild’s “An Ideal Husband”, THE KING MAKER (FILM), HOLY CHILD MUSICAL (Written by Olu Jacobs), SHYLOCK ( by Arnold Wesker) in which she played Portia, HEARTBEAT THE MUSICAL (Written by Tosin Otudeko), Ahmed Yerima’s SISTERS, LITTLE DROPS and ADA THE COUNTRY produced and directed by Kemi Lala Akindoju.
Joke is known for using all forms of creative media as a tool to support her convictions on women empowerment and human rights. She is Chairman Board of Trustees of Centre of Contemporary Arts (CCA Lagos); Board Member Lagos State Theatre Festival (LSTF); Chairman Lagos State Post Covid-19 Pandemic Review Committee; She is a United Nations’ Goodwill Ambassador against Trafficking in persons (TIP); The Vice Chairman, AART of Life Foundation; Ambassador for Nigerian Women Trust Fund; Board member of Savannah Centre for Democracy, Diplomacy and Development, Board Member LIMGE.