THIS IS MY STORY
My life began in Ethopia where I was born to South Africans who had been banished from their homeland for campaigning against apartheid. After settling in Zambia, my father was posted back to Ethiopia for work. However, amidst serious political upheaval, it was decided that my sister and I would leave for the United Kingdom, to study at boarding school. Spending so much of my early life in different countries meant that my childhood was a rather nomadic one and I began to harbor feelings of being an outsider. These feelings were compounded when I graduated from the Welsh College of Music and Drama, as I found that visible roles for black actresses were few and far between.
In 1994, South Africa was finally able to hold its first free and fair elections, and I jumped at the chance to return. It was a chance for me to visit my homeland, but also a place in which I could explore my sense of identity, and what it meant to be me. I moved to Johannesburg with a plan to stay for only two years. I acted at the Windybrow Theatre, before landing the part of the power-hungry and domineering Ntsiki Lukhele on the hit television show Generations. Ntsiki was an extremely popular character in South Africa. She was manipulative and devious, but more importantly it was the first time black South Africans were able to see themselves in the media. Her dreadlocks, her appearance and the way she talked was unlike anything that had ever been on television, and I soon became a recognised figure in South Africa.
