Creative Director Ayanda Sithebe |Images by: Mlungisi Mlungwana | Director Samke Makhoba | Make-up Artist Pumzile Mhlongo | Interview by Sisonke Mbalekwa
Editor In Chief: Mandisa Vundla
With June hailed as the month to celebrate the determined youth of South Africa, we saw it fitting to utilize this moment to bring forth the second installment of the Actor Spaces ‘New Breed Actors’ series, to recognize a new cycle of inspirational actors, pouring their youthful energies into diversifying their talents to meet the daunting challenges of the industry head-on. Actors Billy Edward Langa, Zigi Ndlhovu, Didi Khunou and Mpho Sibeko borrowed from their individual journeys to give us insight on how the industry relates to a New Breed of Actors today. Each recounting their tribulations and triumphs through the crack of dawn. The words ‘The early bird catches the worm’ have never rung truer as the chosen location for the shoot was jolted awake with youthful presence, caffeine-induced vitality and lots of laughter, hours before the sun rose… Bringing together four dynamic young performers in conversation.
MPHO SIBEKO
How did you get into acting at such a young age?
In a way, my parents set the premise for me, I didn’t understand what agents were. In 2006 and 2007, I’m in grade six at that time and my mom tells me she signed me up with an agency. I’m like oh ok, I’m gonna model. That’s really what I thought it was, I’m gonna model clothes. Then I think I got my first audition and it was for a modeling gig and I thought oh well this is all it will ever be. I did a Nedbank brochure after that and I did the lion king in the same year…READ MORE
DIDINTLE KHUNOU
What motivated young Didi to get into acting?
I grew up in a very sheltered environment, on a farm, -at least I know how to work the soil, I didn’t have much of a social life. How I understood myself and my identity was really based on what I was doing at home, I was very domesticated until I left Klerksdorp for varsity and that’s when the process of self-discovery really happened. For the most part, I was definitely conditioned to not expressing myself fully and that’s why maybe going into acting is still a therapeutic outlet for me because I get to discover things about myself. When I was 16,…. READ MORE
ZIGI NDLHOVU
Growing up, how were you introduced to acting?
I grew up in a small town called Thulamahashe in Mpumalanga, that’s where I grew up for the majority of my life then I moved to Nelspruit. I went to this school, I was a bit of a… Not a loser but I kept to myself most of the time. When I got to this school, haha, they put us in groups in grade 8…. READ MORE
BILLY EDWARD LANGA
What inspired your journey into Acting?
I come from Hammanskraal, I was born, bred and raised there up until Matric. I’m a ‘plaasjapie’, plaas, plaas, plaas but my family had a house here In Sophia Town since ’94 so we always moved between Jo’burg and Hammanskraal. I come from a very respectable family and this field of performance was never on the list of things I wanted to do. The school I went to never had drama it was just Science, Commerce, and Home Economics. When I fully came to Jo’burg in 2007, I did Electrical Engineering at CJC then I bumped into the poems and I was very passionate about poetry….READ MORE
