Selema "Sal" Mabena Masekela (born August 28, 1971) is an American television host, sports commentator, actor and singer.

Life and career

Masekela was born in Los Angeles, the son of a

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and s ...

an mother and South African jazz musician

Hugh Masekela Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for ...

. Masekela is also the older half-brother of '' Survivor: Cook Islands'' contestant Nathan Gonzalez. He was raised in

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

in the same class with rapper

Method Man Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is known as a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He is also half o ...

and

Carlsbad, California Carlsbad is a coastal city in the North County region of San Diego County, California, United States. The city is south of downtown Los Angeles and north of downtown San Diego. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 114,746. ...

, where he attended Carlsbad High School. Masekela is the co-founder of Berkela Motion Pictures with Jason Bergh. When he was a teenager, Masekela's upbringing brought him to Southern California, where he was first exposed to surfing, snowboarding and skateboarding. His career began as an intern at Transworld Publications in 1992, home of ''TW Snow'', ''TW Skateboarding'', and ''TW Surf'' magazines. He served as an NBA sideline reporter for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

during the 2003-2004 season. Masekela was co-host of ''The Daily 10'', a countdown of the day's "top 10" entertainment stories, on the E! network until it was cancelled on Sept 27, 2010 (last show Oct 1, 2010). He was also host of both the

X Games The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organized, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, ...

and Winter X Games on

for 13 years but left in 2012 to work for NBC and NBC Sports Network through a contract with Red Bull Media House. He appears in the "Green" episode of ''Yo Gabba Gabba'' singing the song "Hello World" which aired on Nick Jr. on April 22, 2009. In 2010, he was hired by ESPN to help as a correspondent in its coverage of the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

in South Africa. While working as a correspondent, Masekela was featured, with his father, Hugh, in a series of videos on ESPN. The series, called "Umlando - Through my Father's Eyes", aired in 10 parts during ESPN's coverage of the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The series focused on Hugh and Selema's travels through South Africa. Hugh brought his son to the places where he grew up. It was Selema's first trip to his father's homeland. A native of New York, Masekela travelled the world in his youth with his father, South African jazz musician

. Masekela's own band, Alekesam, shares the name of his first film which chronicles his relationship with his father and their connection through music, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2012. Alekesam's music has been featured on '' Entourage'' and '' House of Lies'', with their newest single, "All Is Forgiven", featured on the season four premiere of the Showtime hit. Masekela has hosted live events, including YouTube's Brandcast in New York and Paris, YouTube Live on Stage from the Kennedy Center and Google's Zeitgeist. As part of NBC's coverage of the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympi ...

in Sochi, Masekela was a features reporter for NBC's nationally syndicated ''Olympic Zone''. He joined the Emmy-award-winning investigative series VICE on HBO as a correspondent and executive producer in 2015. That year, he also appeared in the remake of the cult classic Point Break. From April 2016, Masekela appeared as the host and executive producer of VICELAND’s docu-series, ''VICE World of Sports''. The series took viewers all over the world to explore each location's people, politics and culture through sports. The series premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on April 22. Masekela is also involved in the production company UX Entertainment. Based in Los Angeles, UXE specializes in film, commercials, music videos, and animation work.

Social initiatives

Masekela is involved in several social initiatives, and is the co-founder of Stoked Mentoring, an organization dedicated to mentoring at risk youth through action sports. He also serves on the advisory boards of

The Lunchbox Fund The Lunchbox Fund is a non-profit organization providing a daily meal for orphaned and vulnerable school children in township and rural areas of South Africa. The organization was founded by South African model Topaz Page-Green. The Board of Dir ...

, a non-profit organization which provides a daily meal to students of

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...

schools 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 ...

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 coun ...

, and The Skatepark Project, an organization dedicated to financing and building high-quality, legal skateboarding parks for kids. Masekela is also a strong public supporter of the

Surfrider Foundation The Surfrider Foundation USA is a U.S. 501(c)(3) grassroots non-profit environmental organization that works to protect and preserve the world's oceans, waves and beaches. It focuses on water quality, beach access, beach and surf spot preservati ...

and Life Rolls On.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Masekela, Selema Living people American game show hosts American infotainers American television sports anchors American television reporters and correspondents African-American television personalities American people of Haitian descent National Basketball Association broadcasters American people of South African descent 1971 births Place of birth missing (living people) People from Carlsbad, California 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people