Motell Biography
Motell Solomon is one of the most successful comedy talents to emerge in Nigeria in the recent past. He makes skits, creates content, acts and entertains events and he is simply called the garri guy to millions of people.
His real name is Motell Solomon Ovat. Online, he’s simply Motell, and this one name has become a brand.
His story is not a typical overnight report. He was always behind the camera before fame. He was not just a videographer, but one with quality expertise. He collaborated with film makers.
Collaborated with other skit makers on shooting for them and brainstorming with them. He has repeatedly stated that it was not his intention to become a comic. It turned out that it was a random activity.
He also had a rough start in life. His father died when he was young. His mother was a trader named Nancy, who carried the family. He has four elder sisters and is the first boy of the family.
He used to attend the University of Calabar but could not sustain his presence there due to lack of funds. He also addressed the issue of taking admission in college for Medicine and Surgery only to find that it was not the right choice for him.
For years, life bullied him around. He worked as a security guard earning less than ten thousand naira a month. Later, he transferred to Lagos state to Agege in 2018 and secured a new teaching position, with a salary of 12,000 naira per month. He applied for the job with a 300 naira note in his pocket for a foolscap sheet and a pen.
On April 13, three years before his big break, he began publishing his own material. The turning point was his Hello Philip skits, where he leaned out of a window and begged a friend for just small one thousand naira. He later added the neighbour series, and all the things changed.
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How old is Motell?
Motell is a young man, and he says so himself. During one of his 2026 interviews, he talked about counting his numbers everyday and striving to do more because, “I am still young, I need to work,” he said. He takes care of all of his social media himself for that reason.
He is not very forthcoming on his birth date. He makes no loud postings on birthday, and he doesn’t interview about his personal stuff much. What he does have is his timeline and that is a better way to tell the story than a number.
This is what we know: By 2018, he was already a working adult, working the teaching job in Agege after moving to Lagos. Prior to this, he was a teacher in Calabar. Previously he was a university student at the University of Calabar and previously was admitted to study Medicine and Surgery.
During the tough years, he was also a security guard. So put those all on top of each other and look at one man who’s been hustling for well over ten years.
That estimation puts him in his early to mid thirties as of 2026. He also walks around as such. He speaks of himself as a quiet, calm, shy guy who spends more time inside than out and his mention of being about school and books growing up says it all.
His old age is of particular interest because of his late stardom. A lot of skit writers blow at twenty two or twenty three. Motell got his years of fill-in work and then broke out right in between 2025 and 2026. One of the rules he frequently gives new creators is to make an effort to work little by little as opposed to fast. That advice sounds like a man who has lived through the waiting.
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Where is Motell from?
Motell is from Cross River State in the South South region of Nigeria. That’s his birthplace and the Ovat surname is one of the typical cross river names. He has stated in multiple interviews that he was born into a Cross Riverian family of six children, and is the first son.
Other places had more of an influence on his early life, however. He has said he was born and raised in Akwa Ibom State, the neighbouring state in the same region. He mentions the area he lived in as being where many will knock on your door for money and some of them really feel like they have a right to it. Later on, those streets were the source of his material.
His adulthood actually started in the Cross River state capital, Calabar. He joined the University of Calabar. He was an educator at Calabar prior to Lagos.
Then came Lagos. He moved to Agege, a very busy, and very populated part of the mainland in 2018. Agege is a place where neighbors can listen to others’ discussions. Anyone who happens to see his skits can tell that he is setting in his work. Today he lives in Lagos and his booking page is situated there too.
He still carries his heritage with him. He owes his mother, who is also a typical African mother from that part of the country his silent skits. She never had to raise her voice, he says. As soon as she looked at him, it was obvious that something was wrong. That is a South ‘South’ thing for home training and that is also the reason Nigerians got caught up with the silent skits.
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What is Motell’s real name?
His real name is Motell Solomon Ovat. Three names and they are all used differently.
However, professionally he is known as Motell. Just Motell. It’s short, it’s easy and now it’s searchable! It’s been mis-spelled as Mortell by some media houses (it’s been used as such in one Punch headline!) The right spelling is with an r dropped off, and a double l added: Motell.
A few also refer to him as Motell Solomon. This version is the one that’s on his LinkedIn, on interview credits and in most newspaper articles. When interviewed, the first time, Punch used Motell Solomon. Motell Solomon was used by Legit as well.
The Ovat part appears less often in the press, but he has used it himself, including on old posts titled Motell Solomon Ovat photos.
Not to mention the nicknames the internet bestowed upon him. He is tagged ‘garri guy’ by fans. Some people refer to him as garri man. Some call him the 1k guy, because of the Hello Philip skits where he keeps asking for just small one thousand naira. On Facebook, his own page carries the line, by the mention of garri, all secrets shall be split.
It has become such a successful name that many have no idea what his last name is. This is generally expected to be a positive rating for a brand. He states that nowadays he is still amazed at how he can be identified by people in public, even at airports in places that he does not live.
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“Garri Inspiration”
The garri story is the truth and not a joke he concocted in a writing room.
At the time he was working in Agege at twelve thousand naira a month the money was not enough to buy a meal.
He proceeded to a neighbour who sold provisions and told her his pay as he had been truthful, and if she could lend him a custard rubber of garri till the next day of pay. She agreed. From the first day of resumption at work to the last day he was paid, garri was his food. He did not forget that one month.
Years later, when he was in need of content ideas, he went back to the days and found his ideas. He’s made no secret of it that it was the motivation that compelled him to create stories surrounding garri.
There is a practical reason, too. Garri is in almost every Nigerian home. It is cheap, it is common, and it is the one thing a person can ask a neighbour for without feeling too ashamed. In his words, garri was the gold or diamond that was easy to give out. Rice, tomatoes and pepper are harder to beg for. Garri is not.
Interestingly that’s not the first thing that came to his mind. The first idea was from a friend who was able to state that raw rice has the ability to absorb water from a wet phone.
He took a skit based on that, and made his way to a neighbour’s door and requested for a cup of rice, then adding the tomatoes and pepper as well. The desire in that request was the formula.
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The neighbour is nearly always the last one closing the door in the garri skits.
Now that’s a faceless neighbour as part of that act. Her voice conjures up scenes, and she understands when to slam the door. Motell says he doesn’t even see it coming. At the sound of the door, he ends his speech.
The content spread fast. One Philip video he almost did not post ended up with close to a million TikTok users on the sound in a few weeks, and it brought him over five hundred thousand followers. Mercy Johnson used the sound. Don Jazzy and Tunde Ednut reposted him. Now people joke that garri brands should sign him. He agrees and that bookings are already rolling in.