Patricia Ngozi Ebigwei was born in 1954 in a taxicab between two villages in the Bendel Igbo region of rural Nigeria in the middle of the horrific Biafran civil war. Aged sixteen, she left Nigeria and moved to London, she changed her name to Patti Boulaye after a chance meeting with Evelyn Laye, known affectionately as “Boo” to her friends. She made her name as a West End actress and recording star and her illustrious international career includes starring roles on stage and screen as well as working as a writer, producer and teacher. She is now a Governor of BADA the famous drama academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) as well as an artist and charity fundraiser.