Stian Bam

Stian Bam is a South African actor, born in Walvisbaai. He often collaborates with directors such as Marthinus Basson, Nicola Hanekom, Juanita Swanepoel and Jaco Bouwer. He has appeared in Lot en Babbel by Nicola Hanekom, Spyt by Ingrid Winterbach (directed by Brink Scholtz). He is also known for his work in front of the camera, such as his performance in the lead role of the kykNET series, Die Boland Moorde, and Die Boekklub. He also starred in the films Racheltjie de Beer (2019) and Modder en Bloed (2016). He is an alumnus of the University of Stellenbosch’s Drama Department.

Amelda Brand

Amelda Brand has worked as a theatre practitioner for over 25 years with interests in workshop theatre, puppetry and clowning. She graduated with a BDrama in Performance and MDrama in Community Based Theatre at Stellenbosch University, where she is currently lecturer in Applied Theatre. She also holds a Masters in Drama Therapy from Concordia University, Montreal.

Brendon Daniels

Brendon Daniels is South African actor currently starring in the popular TV drama series, Vallei van Sluiers. In 2012 he played the lead in the detective series, Die Boland Moorde.  He became a freelance actor in film, theatre and then television n 2005. Before that he had roles in films such as Dollars, and White Pipes and Heaven, before meeting his mentor Charlton Lee George, in 2003. He also appeared in Master Harold and the Boys, I Now Pronounce you Black and White and End of the Road. His most recent films roles were in iNumber Number, Four Corners, and the international film City of Violence. Daniels has appeared in several television series. He was a guest star in several South African television series, among them Transito, League of Glory, Shooting Stars.

Theatre is Daniels’ great love. Ladies Night, in which he played the role of a night club owner, marked the beginning of his professional stage career in 2000. In 2007, he was in Die Generaal, written by Mike van Graan and directed by Jaco Bouwer. In 2011, Daniels Daniels won the best actor award for his performance in Rooiland, again directed by Jaco Bouwer. This play received four Fiesta awards, and was nominated in three categories – best theatre production, best actor, and best director – at the KKNK Kanna awards in 2012. In 2013 Daniels was on stage in, Balbesit , written by Saartjie Botha and directed by Jaco Bouwer. He also won the best actor award for his role in Babbel, the final of Nicola Hanekom’s site specific trilogy.

Gaireyah Fredericks

Gaireyah Fredericks is a single mother of three boys, Yaghya, Muhammad Uzair and Diyaa-Udeen. She is a member of the Paarl Sahih Muslim community. She started writing in 2012 at the Breytenbach centre in Wellington.  Since 2015 she has self-published seven collections: Mientjies, Kaaps is Hollands, 40 stories, 40 woorde op ‘40’, Ramadaan Chronicles 2017, H2O Poetry Calendar, Hanne innie lig, voete oppie grond and Mettie maan gepla.

She won the best supporting actress award for her diverse roles in, Our Komfrom. She won the best script award for, Hanne innie lig, in the Department of Arts and Culture’s drama competition. She also won the Nalibali story Bosso competition with her children’s book, Elkeen hetta krakie. Her debut theatre script received two nominations: one for best script and a nomination for best upcoming actress. She played the role of the nurse in Alles Malan on Kyknet.

Fredericks received an honorary award at Die Wellingtonse Stasiefees for her contribution to the promotion of Kaaps. She received the Patricia Schonstein award for her poem, Dronk Verdriet, at the McGregor Poetry festival – one of several poetry festivals she gets invited to. She appears regularly as a reader at poetry events at the Woordfees in Stellenbosch, the Prins Albert Festival, the Adam Small Festival and the Tuin van Digters Festival. In 2019 she came second in the Avbob National Poetry Festival with her poem, Dood.

As part of a ‘give back’ project, Fredericks developed the Mother Tongue Workshop to support emerging writers in creating and sustaining relationships within the environments where they work. These workshops are now offered online.

Fredericks completed an honours degree in Afrikaans at the University of the Western Cape.

Robert Hindley

William Robert Hindley is an actor and student at the University of Stellenbosch where he completed his undergraduate degree in BA Drama and theatre studies. He is currently studying for his honours degree in Applied Theatre. Hindley appeared in theatre productions such as Jakkals and Wold Onbeperk which won the best ensemble award at the 10th KykNET fiestas. He was also seen in, Frida Kahlo Op n Veiling and Valsrivier, for which he was awarded best actor at the 2020 Toyota US Woordfees. His television roles include his role of Willem in Die Boekklub on KykNET.

Ria Human

I have been working in the film industry as a script supervisor on international as well as local film productions for the last 30 years.  I have also written children’s books during the last year, although I have not published just yet.  I am hoping to retire from the film industry within the next five years to write full time from my home in beautiful Betty’s Bay.

Aphiwe Livi

Aphiwe Livi is a Cape Town based actor, dancer and choreographer and international performer. He began his performance career in African, Gumboot, contemporary and fission dance as a member of the physical theatre organization Iqhude Theatre Production under the direction of Thembelihle Mananga. He then studied performance at New Africa Theatre in 2008, and contemporary dance at Jazzart from 2009-2011. He has performed as a dancer in numerous Jazzart productions at the Artscape and Baxter Theatres.

In 2013 he branched into acting, appearing in Mandisi Sindo’s theatre production, The Widow, at Infecting the City, Thando Mzembe’s, The Playroom at Zabalaza Theatre festival (for which he was nominated for best supporting actor) and at the Market Theatre in Joanna Evans’ award-winning, The Year of the Bicycle, and, In Ongenade directed by Jaco Bouwer. Most recently he was in Miriam Makheba, Mama Africa the Musical, directed by Niyi Coker JR at the Artscape Theatre in Cape Town. He also casted for a role in the television drama, Isikizi.

Aphiwe has toured extensively through South Africa, as well as to international festivals in Stuttgart and Singapore. He worked with award winning theatre practitioner Mamela Nyamza on her new work entitled, De-Apart-Hate at the Dance Umbrella in 2017. This year he will be performing at the Afro Vibes festival in Germany with her. He worked twice with the award-winning visual artist Mohau Modisakeng on his piece, Left LA Ntate, and Passage. In 2018 and 2019 he was part of the cast, Toutjies & Ferreira, and GodGodGod, which played at art festivals around the country. Most recently Aphiwe performed in, Kingdom of Ubuntu, written by Elvis Sibeko.

Yamkela Mabadi

Sindiswa Yamkela Mabadi is 21 years old and currently staying in Robertson where she works as an actress for The Mother Tongue Project.

Siyambonga Alfred Mdubeki

Siyambonga Alfred Mdubeki is an actor, producer, and director, born and raised in Mount Ayliff in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. He holds a diploma in media studies from City Varsity (2015), is a graduate from the Duma Ndlovu Academy (2016) as well as a graduate of the Market Theatre Laboratory (2018). He made his international debut, the theatre production, Dark Noon, which toured in Europe for three months in 2019. He had a role in the first series of the SABC1 drama, Ingozi, directed by Duma Ndlovu and Tony Kgoroge in 2017. His other performing roles include Ditholoaneng, directed by Omphile Molusi), The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, directed by Billy Edward, 21 Wandah, directed by Mwenya Kabwe, Goodbye Kitty, directed by Kieron Jina, Africa Day Special, directed by Omphile Molusi), The Oresteia Revisited, directed by Dorothy Ann Gould, and Platitudes, directed by Nondumiso Msimanga.

Peggy Mongoato

Peggy Mongoato has enjoyed a dynamic decade since graduating from the University of Cape Town. In her final year she performed in, Mirror Mirror, written by Mike Van Graan and directed by Geoff Hyland at the National Arts Festival in 2008 and. Driven by her passion for IsiXhosa, she has played in, Amaza, directed by Thoko Ntshinga at Artscape 2011. In 2013 she directed the same play, again at Artscape. In 2015 she was cast as Nomsa in African Times by Pieter-Dirk Uys. Mongoato featured in both local and international film and television. Most recently she featured in the film, Poppie Nongena, directed by Christian Olwagen. In 2020, she returned to stage as part of the support cast in in the multi award winning Valsrivier directed by Janice Honeyman. Besides acting, Mongoato does translation, script writing, stage management and language advising for both stage and film.

Peggy is an artpreneur, social entrepreneur, IsiXhosa translator, a mom and a wife who enjoys working on activism projects that deal with gender and social equality, children’s rights and race relations in South Africa. She was in the first group of young people who produced short film documentaries for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation project, African Identities. Her own company creates financial literacy educational theatre for young children in marginalized communities of the country. Participating in this project is in line with her efforts, through Vision 2040, to bring awareness to the children and the world of the history of the black people of South Africa.

Devonecia Swartz

Devonecia Swartz is an actress, singer and writer born and bred in Cape Town. She started her journey in performance as a chorister in three of South Africa’s internationally acclaimed choirs and has travelled the world competing in the World Choir Games. She studied Drama and Theatre Studies at Stellenbosch University (2016) and completed her honours degree in Creative Writing in 2019.

Devonecia received the kykNet Fiësta award for best supporting actress (2020) and the KKNK Kanna award for best upcoming actress (2019) for her role of Jakkals in the award-winning production, Jakkals & Wolf Onbeperk. She also received a Fleur du Cap nomination for most promising student for this role (2020), as well as a kykNet Fiësta nomination for her musical duo Devonecia + Wilken, created with multi-instrumentalist Wilken Calitz (2020). 

André-Jacques van der Merwe

André-Jacques van der Merwe is a performer, writer, director and singer. He was a member of the theatre companies PACOFS and PACT in the late eighties, and is known for his stage roles (Die Generaal, Somewhere on the Border, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Fiddler on the Roof) and direction (Sonder Grense…,  Struisvogelstories, Afrikiti), television work (such as his roles in Vleuels, Meester, Arendsvlei, and Die Boland Moorde), as well as films like White Lion, Long Walk to Freedom and Faan se trein.  He also released a CD with lullabies for children, entitled Engelkind. He has received various nominations and awards for his work, including a Fleur du Cap nomination for best contribution to a musical and the Herrie Kanna award for most outstanding production at the KKNK.

Kyla van der Merwe

Kyla van der Merwe is a performing artist who graduated from Stellenbosch University in 2019 with a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in drama and theatre studies and English studies. She is also a trained and qualified vocalist, accomplishing a musical grade 7 from Trinity College. Having experience both onstage and in a choir, she has performed in several productions such as Thula Thula and the US Drama department’s rendition of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She was recently seen in the 2020 Toyota US Woordfees’ Fringe Festival in Niks Alles Tog Iets.