The Africa Movie Academy awards [AMAA] passed with the expected glitz and glamour last week in Bayelsa State, Nigeria, West Africa, and of the many winners, none shone so bright as South Africa’s Mothusi Magano who clinched the coveted prize for ‘Best Actor’ in a Lead Role for 2014, for his role in the 2013 movie, ‘Of Good Report.’
Born March 26, 1979 in Phokeng, on the outskirts of Rustenburg, North West Province, South Africa, Mothusi and his family relocated to Mafikeng where, at the Mmabana Cultural Centre, he got his first taste of theatre when he performed in a pantomime called A Dragon for Dinner at the age of five.
At 19, Mothusi was beyond certain that acting was his path, and he enrolled at the Wits School of Dramatic Art in Johannesburg. His passion evidently burned so hot that he reportedly auditioned for all the plays at Wits in his first year of study and got casted for two: ‘Death and the Maiden’ where he played Gerardo Escobar and ‘Little Shop of Horrors’, in which he played Audrey Two.
He went on to act in numerous theatre productions including Stones in His Pockets, Venus, Four, Lysistrata, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, Bread and Butter, Maid in the New South Africa, American Buffalo, The Coloured Museum, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Hamlet.
In 2003, he starred as Harry Lime in a production of ‘The Third Man’ and where an agent Moonyeenn Lee was sufficiently impressed to sign him to her agency and through her he filmed his first film: Gums and Noses.
Thereafter, things happened in pretty quick succession as he landed a supporting role in the heart-rending historical film, Hotel Rwanda in 2004, where he starred beside Hollywood stars Don Cheadle, Jean Reno, Nick Nolte and Joaquin Phoenix.
In 2005, he starred in the Oscar winning film, Tsotsi, and became the darling of the silver screen in his starring role as Charles “Mingus” Khathi in the SABC3 drama series The Lab, from 2006 to 2009.
With various guest appearances in other series and soaps, Mothusi landed his second starring role in 2013 in the SABC1 drama series Tempy Pushas, set against the backdrop of the lavish fashion world and contrasted with the vibrant township culture.
In November 2013, he joined the cast of the popular e.tv soap ‘Scandal!’ in the role of a mysterious assassin, ‘The Dustbin Man’.
Of his role in Scandal, humble Mothusi stated in an interview with etv.co.za,
“I’m an actor. It’s not such a glamorous job in South Africa, it’s not like Hollywood. You take what you can get. I’m blessed to get work and do what I love.”
And we are thrilled that your efforts have been topped with an AMAA award Mothusi! Keep working at it!
