Dr. Zuriel Oduwole is an American education advocate, policy advisor, and filmmaker. Born to British parents of Mauritian and Nigerian ancestry in Los Angeles, California, Oduwole was first featured in a Forbes magazine in 2010 at the age of 10. In November 2014, Zuriel became the youngest filmmaker to self-produce and edit a screened work for the movie theater and was featured by CNBC..
For her more than a decade long development work since the age of 10, Oduwole was nominated in January 2025 by 2 US institutions and a Senator, for the Nobel Peace Prize. It was in recognition of her many initiatives and interventions in influencing discussions on education across Africa and the Caribbean, actively engaging in diplomatic efforts and peace mediation in South America, the Sahel region and the Middle East, and her work to create opportunities for youths in marginalized communities via a free film making class.
Zuriel has met with 36 presidents and prime ministers in line with her education advocacy and various global socio-development work. Some of these include the leaders of Jamaica, Croatia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Liberia, South Sudan, Malta, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Guyana, Sierra Leone and Namibia. She has also appeared in popular television stations including CNBC, Bloomberg TV, BBC and CNN. In 2013, Oduwole was listed in the New African Magazines list of "100 Most Influential People" and in October 2017, Harvard University graduate school featured her development story.
In May 2026 at the age of 23, she completed her doctoral degree in Global Organizational Change & Leadership from the University of Southern California [USC]
Early life and career
Oduwole was born in Los Angeles, California in July 2002. Her first venture into media and advocacy was in 2012 when she entered a school competition as part of the National History Day (NHD) sponsored by the History Channel with a documentary film about Africa titled The Ghana Revolution. For this she conducted her first presidential interviews, when she met with two former presidents of Ghana: Jerry Rawlings and John Kufuor.
In 2013, after the release of her documentary film titled The 1963 OAU Formation, Zuriel Oduwole was profiled in Forbes Magazine. As part of this second documentary, she interviewed the President of Malawi (Joyce Banda), the President of Tanzania (Jakaya Kikwete) and the President of Mauritius (Rakeshwar Purryag). In March 2013, Oduwole formally started a project called "Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up", a campaign which was first launched at the Lagos Business School's Pan-Atlantic University, for the advocacy and promotion of girl-child education in Africa.
In 2014 at age 12, her self-produced documentary film titled A Promising Africa was screened in five countries. On 21 April 2014, Oduwole was listed as the most Powerful 11 year old in the world by New York Business Insiders in their listing of "World's Most Powerful Person at Every Age". In February 2015, Elle Magazine listed her in their annual feature of "33 Women Who Changed The World", alongside Fed Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen and President of General Motors, Mary Barra.
University speeches and early engagements The University of Pretoria in South Africa [aka TUKS] invited her to speak to their student body in March 2015 as a filmmaker, to give the students an insight into how to communicate and tell the story of global events, from a specific perspectiv— as part of their Humanities series.
In April 2015, the Ivy League's Columbia University in New York, U.S. invited her as a featured speaker at their African Economic Forum conference, as well as a segment panelist, to speak about the potentials of the new Africa.
President Alpha Conde of Guinea met and spoke with Zuriel in May 2015, as part of an information documentary she was doing on the Ebola virus, which started in his country Guinea [before ravaging Sierra Leone and Liberia] ,to understand the impact on the economies of the region, as well as the effect on children's education. President Conde was her 15th world leader she would meet to talk about pertinent and pressing issues.
As part of their global #LikeAGirl campaign to shore up girls' confidence as they entered adolescence, global giant Procter & Gamble engaged Zuriel in June 2015 to create a short documentary about the education of girls about puberty, and the support needed during this period of their lives. She wrote, narrated and produced the video for the campaign with the theme Unstoppable Like A Girl.
While attending global events during the 70th United Nations General Assembly session in New York in September 2015, she met David A. Granger, the President of Guyana on the sidelines of the General Assembly, to speak about the Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute.
In December 2015, she formally launched her DUSUSU Foundation aimed at building partnerships with corporation and individuals to develop the education capabilities of children, but especially the girl child, across the globe. As a filmmaker, she launched her film making 101 Initiative for youths in Windhoek, Namibia in March 2016 and Lagos, Nigeria in June 2016, teaching some of Africa's poorest children basic filmmaking skills so they have practical skills they can use in gainful or self-employment as young adults.
In April 2016, at age 13, she was invited as the keynote speaker at the annual Maryland State Department of Education's Early Childhood EducationaC conference at Ocean City, Maryland, addressing more than 600 adult delegates on how she sees the education of future US leaders developing. Later in June 2016, she was invited as the featured speaker as well as a panelist at the annual Women in Entertainment Luncheon, in Los Angeles, California, U.S.
The Guardian Newspaper, in late June 2016 signed her on as a columnist to share her insight on issues as seen by a younger generation and giving her a section and segment for periodic writing. She became a TEDx circuit speaker when she headlined the TEDx Gbagada event in July 2016 as the featured speaker, talking about the inter-onnectivity between the past and future generations.
Complexities in our world today need a different approach to problem-solving, according to Zuriel. For this reason, she continues to speak at universities across the globe, including at Unilag in March 2025, where she believes creativity driven innovation hubs like the MAD House in the University of Lagos are wellsprings of solutions.
UN events: effect of climate change on education
At the 71st United Nations [UN] General Assembly events in New York in September 2016, Zuriel was invited to speak on how the effects of climate change is significantly affecting the education of children in the Pacific Island region. She met to discuss these issues afterwards with the Prime Minister of Samoa - H.E. Tuilaepa Malielegaoi and the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, H.E. Enele Sopoaga. She was invited to meet the new Jamaica Prime Minister - H.E. Andrew Holness, to understand how Global Warming is affecting countries in the Caribbean region also. As President of the COP23 in Bonn, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji shared the challenges his country faced with rising flood waters with Zuriel, asking her to use her documentaries to share with the world the plight of children in the pacific islands. Concerned about the very slow pace of the worlds redress of the climate change issue, she penned her first Op-Ed on the topic in October 2021, ahead of COP26 in Glasgow, in November 2021. It was from a position of knowledge, as a UN designated Climate Neutral 'Champion'
TRT World news interviewed and featured her on their Newsmakers section after her participation at the UN events
In October 2016, she met with her 23rd World Leader, the President of Malta Her Excellency Mary Louise Preca, to share her ideas on building a network of female world leaders to tackle the issue of "out of school children", especially girls, around the world.
As part of activities to commemorate their 11th annual Kreole festival from 22 to 25 November, the government of Mauritius invited Zuriel Oduwole to be the special guest for the years events. Apart from being a judge for the film competition during the festival chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister Xavier-Luc Duval, she taught 150 underprivileged children basic film making skills from the Port Louis municipality as a film maker herself, and was a guest at the African night concert at the country's Citadel center in Port Louis along with Zambian First Lady, H.E. Esther Lungu
Open advocacy for girls' education and the youth voice
On 6 January 2017, the US Secretary of State - Rt Hon John Kerry met Zuriel in Washington DC to commend her for what he called her 'clarity of purpose' in recognizing a major global developmental issue - Girls Education, and taking on the challenge head on. He also lauded her film making class for unemployed youths, which he said was making a tangible difference.
In February 2015, President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic of Croatia met with Zuriel Oduwole to commend her work on Girls Education and to learn how her basic 'Film Making 101' skill transfer programs could make a difference for the youth in Croatia.
Forbes Afrique featured Zuriel for their February 2017 [Fevrier 2017] issue. The magazine introduced her DUSUSU Foundation and its evolving partnerships with development groups on the continent, such as the Dangote Foundation, for her Gender Development and Skill transfer project initiatives
Zuriel visited Mexico as an Education Ambassador, speaking to 350 youths in Mexico State and Hidalgo State and taking them through her basic Film Making 101 Class, already conducted in 4 other countries. The City of Pachuca - in Hidalgo state then honored her with an Award and Citation for her global work in the area of Education Development and Girls Equality advocacy President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana met with Zuriel in June 2018 in Accra, and commended her for her basic film class projects to benefit the young girls in his country. Zuriel believes that in a digital age of social media and the new economy, learning the art of digital communications and motion picture communications puts girls at an advantage in tackling their own unemployment, as they would have skills they can use effectively in a matter of weeks.
The UN in September 2000 launched the first set of MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] with 8 development goals by 2015, including eradicating extreme poverty, gender equality, and universal primary education. Because the UN did not set an age limit or overall criteria on partnerships aimed at accomplishing these goals, Zuriel saw an opportunity to participate in processes that moved the gender equality needle forward, especially on the African continent where she saw huge challenges. Being a girl and with a first hand understanding of some global challenges girls face, she with the help of volunteers and academics across 3 continents began to collate data and measures the impact first ladies and gender ministers on the African continent are making towards achieving universal primary education, which she sees as a prerequisite for gender equality. She then created the annual DUSUSU [Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up] Awards in 2014 to encourage a healthy competition and reference point of progress among African first ladies and African gender ministers, to do more each year for girls education. So far, the first ladies of Tanzania in 2014, Kenya in 2015, Namibia in 2016 Senegal in 2017, Mozambique in 2018, Cape Verde in 2019 and Sierra Leone in 2020 have received the award between 2014 and 2020, as well as gender ministers from Ghana, Rwanda, Jamaica and Mauritius.