Art over everything!

Samora Mangesi is a South African actor , radio presenter, producer and TV presenter. Most of us first knew him from Hectic Nine-9 on SABC 2 before he started presenting on The Real Goboza on SABC 1, June last year. He was born in Mdantsane just outside of EAST LONDON in the Eastern Cape and went to Selborne Primary and Selborne College. He was brought up by his mom, who is a single parent as an only child. He does though have siblings on his dad's side but they didn't grow up in the same household and he has a very big family.

He says that during his primary school days, drama was one of the subjects he fell in love with. He mostly fell in love with stories; hearing stories, telling stories. This was fuelled more by the introduction of dramatized poetry. He then started attending Eisteddfods, representing his school in different categories which further gave him the stamp of approval that he was actually good at this. He took part in multiple theater productions throughout school both in school and out of school as part of the very vibrant community theater circle in his home town. In high school, him and a group of friends and started writing, directing and producing their own plays. These were all put together by teenagers from the different schools in East London and everything was done by them, from Producing to lighting. These plays always had a theme, be it Gender Based Violence, Xenophobia or HIV, their main goal was always to educate whilst entertaining. Due to this he moved to Cape Town to go and study at AFDA - The South African School Of Motion Picture Medium and Performing Arts.

Samora says he actually fell in love with presenting before Hectic Nine 9. When he got to AFDA he was roped into 

presenting and by the end of his first year, he had already presented a few shows for CTV (Cape Town Community TV Station) and he actually did not consider presenting as a career up until Hectic Nine 9. A friend of his sent him the information about the audition in 2012 saying that they think that he would be great for it and convinced him to go and audition. He did, made it to top 6 where the public voted and he ended up getting the job. 

Samora says that It's very difficult to choose between acting and presenting. He would say acting was his first love but it was definitely a segue to the current love of his life, which is presenting. Live television and Theater are very similar as well. He thinks that he was attracted to TV, especially live TV because it reminded me of the live element in theater. He always said that Live Television is like the greatest drug and is extremely addictive and he could say the same about theater.

When I ask him how he gets so comfortable in front the camera he says that the weirdest thing is, he actually forgets about the camera most of the time. He think he forgets that is actually a camera and that we are broadcasting to millions of people, he is more focused on being present in the space that he is in at that time which is usually the studio. Also, one of the best tips that he can give anyone who has to speak to a camera or in front of an audience, it's best to always imagine that you are having a conversation with one person, maybe a friend. That definitely made him a lot more comfortable in his days starting out. 

He says he looks up to a lot of people for many different reasons. including his mom, and a couple of his friends. However, when it comes to the work space, he definitely looks up to DJ Fresh and Robert Marawa. Over and above, the levels of success that they have managed to reach, very few (if any) people have anything negative to say about them. They're just really nice people who he would say are more respected than famous, which for him, is ultimately what he strives for. 

He adds that he barely get out of bed. However, when he does it's generally the fear of failing as he is not the biggest fan of failure.

When it comes to what we can expect from Samora in the near future, he says he would definitely love to get back into the arts by taking it to disadvantaged communities and getting young people to tell their stories through different mediums. Education about a lot of issues starts at a grassroots level and theater engages so many different senses that he believes are necessary for the development and molding of a young person's character, views and outlook on life.

BE YOU.