He then pursued his Master of Business Administration (MBA) on a full scholarship at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
During his time in the United States, Ukpaa enrolled to study filmmaking at the New York Film Academy.
[3] He was taught screenplay writing by the veteran late filmmaker Amaka Igwe, who doubled as being one of two people who inspired him to get into stage theatre in the first place with her indigenous language feature film "Ahanna", as well as Tunde Kelani with "Ti Oluwa Nile".
[1] He commended the impact of the ingression of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video into the Nigerian movie industry, as well as the influence of cinema.
[10] He is the Chief operating officer (COO) of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF),[1] through which he creates and environment where veteran filmmakers can equip and inspire upcoming directors.