Born in Nigeria, Temi left his family in Nigeria at age 15 for university in California to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. He graduated with honors and the youngest in his class from San Jose State University and spent 8 years in Silicon Valley as a microchip product engineer at Xilinx (now Advanced Micro Devices) before having an epiphany at his sister’s side during the difficult 22-hours of labor that lead to the birth of her first child.

 

Realizing that his full life potential was being underutilized, and that he owed a legacy to share with the next generation, he left for graduate school to concurrently attain a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University, and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Motion Pictures and Television at Academy of Art University, San Francisco.

 

Temi briefly applied his MBA to senior marketing strategy roles at Fortune 500 companies Adobe and Sun Microsystems (now Oracle) before combining it with his filmmaking to launch his production company Topijo Films with which he has crafted independent commercial content for a wide portfolio of brands, including Skanska, Numi Organic Tea, Blendoor and Joie de Vivre Hotels. His work was recently honored by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers' Commercial Director's Diversity Program (AICP-CDDP).

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His independent short films have screened in several international film festivals, winning numerous awards. His MFA thesis film RENOUNCING ANGELICA was lauded "a heart-rending short work” by the San Diego Union Tribune, honored on BET’s Lens On Talent, and awarded a BNP Paribas Humanitarian Prize for raising awareness of the lifesaving promise of bone-marrow donations. His next short HABITUAL AGGRESSION, which explored the emotional costs of domestic abuse, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for an Africa Movie Academy Award.

 

He regularly attends industry leading international film festivals and film markets - Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW, Cannes, TIFF and AFM - and is currently packaging his debut feature film SEEDLESS, which spotlights the downside of gender and racial underrepresentation in Silicon Valley. Its teaser short film was a top 3% finalist in the Lionsgate/Codeblack/Jack Daniels national competition.

 

Temi recently won the SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship for his latest feature script A MAN WITH A MISSING FACE, based on the true story of the first black person (and oldest person to date) to receive a full-face transplant.

 

He splits his time between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and when not working, finds happiness in the company of his nephews and niece, making them laugh.​​​