Thulasizwe Siphiwe Dambuza (born 19 July 1998), known professionally as Lasizwe, is a South African social media personality, actor, television presenter and YouTuber. He became a

celebrity Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group as a result of the attention given to them by mass media. An individual may attain a celebrity status from having great wealth, their participation in sports ...

by uploading videos of himself interpreting how Africans act and behave in a comedic way. He became the first African to have a reality television show on

MTV Africa MTV Africa (formerly MTV South Africa) is an African pay television from Paramount Networks EMEAA. It focuses mainly on rebroadcasting MTV US content as well as airing local-produced reality series. Founded by Alex Okosi and launched as 'Africa ...

. ''@Lasizwe: Fake It Till You Make It'' went up to three seasons in less than two years.

Early life and education

Lasizwe was born in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. He attended Meredale Primary, a mixed-race primary school in Meredale, south of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, and then attended Mondeor High School in

Mondeor Mondeor is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is located in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Known as the Jewel of the South, Mondeor is set amongst hills outside the urban Johannesburg area but is only a 1 ...

. His mother, Lindiwe Dambuza (died in 2016) was a 40-year-old nurse at Lesedi Private Hospital, in a relationship with his father, Menzi Mcunu. Along with his mother, his sister, Zonke Nkabinde, played a major role in his life, guiding and protecting him. Lasizwe noticed there was something different about him: that he was uncomfortable around boys but could relate to any feminine topic. At the age of 15 he recognized that he was gay.

Career

Before starting his career, Lasizwe's mother took him for television auditions on a weekly basis across

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

from primary school. At the age of 12, she sat him down and explained that the weekly auditions were no longer financially viable for their family. He entered various competitions that gave away phones or audio-visual equipment. It was when he won a phone from a radio competition, which he used to start creating his first batch of content. Using his mother's laptop to record and learn basic video editing, he stored the videos on DVD discs and watched himself on the TV screen. The urge to be on TV led him to post videos on Facebook, and ultimately create relatable South African content. His first breakout video, ''Ek Sal Doom Jou'', which was a skit based on news reports of a controversial pastor that sprayed the faces of his congregants with insect repellent in church. The video went viral which led to different brands approaching him for commercials. Between 2020 and 2021, he managed to raise R2 million to impact students that were in need of registration fees. This was in light of the protests that took place in South Africa, where students were protesting for 'Fees must fall' and impacted the lives of 313 students, through the "R10 goes a long way" campaign.

Broadcast media

Lasizwe has made appearances on

MTV Base Africa MTV Base is a 24-hour music channel from Paramount Networks EMEAA. There are three different feeds of MTV Base Africa; for South Africa, West Africa and East Africa respectively. History The channel was launched in February 2005 with a liv ...

's ''You Got Got'' as one of the main presenters, and has presented on

SABC 3 SABC 3 (stylised as S3) is a South African free-to-air public television network owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). It carries programming in English and, few in other South African languages. It has a number of its own re ...

's ''The Scoop Africa'' and SABC 1's ''The Real Goboza''. He hosted an outdoor event with Mabala Noise and presented an award at the 2017

South African Hip Hop Awards The South African Hip Hop Awards (commonly abbreviated as SAHHA) are an annual hip hop award ceremony, that celebrates achievements within the South African hip hop culture, established in 2012. The awards are presented annually, and are broadca ...

. He was featured in a

Nando's Nando's (; ) is a South African multinational fast casual chain that specialises in flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken. Founded in Johannesburg in 1987, Nando's operates over 1,200 outlets in 30 countries. Their logo (also seen as a sort of ...

TV commercial and on

Fanta Fanta is an American-owned German brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drinks created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are more than 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as ...

's TV commercial as their new teen marketing director. In late 2017 he became a radio presenter on TouchHD. In 2018 he landed a role in hosting

e.tv e.tv (commonly referred to on-air as e) is the first and only privately owned free-to-air television station in South Africa. It is the fifth terrestrial television channel in the country, following three channels that are operated by the sta ...

's youth show ''Craz-e World Live'' as well as VOOV TV's new show ''VOOVScoop''. In May 2019, he secured himself a deal to partner with GAME Stores. The deal followed after he had posted a video on his social media platforms that depicted his famed character "Nomatriquency" undergoing an interview for a position at GAME. In July 2020, he starred on the Netflix movie, '' Seriously Single''. In November 2020, he was the host of the SABC 1 and Telkom music show, ''Telkom Monate Vibes''. In September 2021, he partnered with Steers in the #NomatriquencyxSteers campaign that saw his famed character Nomatriquency getting a job at the brand. Later that year, he was the host of a

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...

Roast spin-off show. On 1 April 2022, he starred on the

television series '' Durban Gen''. He is also set to make a

cameo appearance A cameo role, also called a cameo appearance and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief appearance of a well-known person in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking ones, and are commonly eit ...

on the African Netflix serie, ''Savage Beauty''.

Music

In December 2017, he was featured in

Babes Wodumo Bongekile Mildred Simelane (born March 25, 1994), better known as Babes Wodumo is a South African gqom artist and choreographer. She rose to fame following the release of her breakthrough song "Wololo", in 2016. The song later appeared on her de ...

and

Ntando Duma Ntando Duma (born August 29, 1995) is a South African actress and television personality. She is best known as a presenter on e.tv's youth programming block ''Craz-e'', where she primarily featured on ''Craz-e World live''. She is also well known ...

's music video for the song "Jiva Phez'kombhede".

YouTube

Lasizwe is a YouTuber with more than 80 million views on his videos. In April 2019, Lasizwe received the silver play button from YouTube for reaching 100,000 subscribers.

Endorsements

In early 2018 Lasizwe became Teen

Marketing Director A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a global marketing officer or marketing director, or chief brand officer, is a corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. Whilst historically these titles may ...

for

. He was nominated for a Feather Award for Social media Personality of the Year, and presented with a People's Choice Award in 2021. He has also been named one of the top YouTubers in South African under the age of 24. In 2021, he was nominated as The E! African Social Star. He is also the first South African to secure an endorsement deal for a fictional character that he named "Nomatriquency".

Filmography

Awards and recognition

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dambuza, Lasizwe 1998 births Living people People from Soweto South African television personalities South African radio presenters South African YouTubers Video bloggers South African actors South African LGBT entertainers Gay actors LGBT YouTubers 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people