Pamela Nomvete

Pamela Nomvete (born 1963) is an Ethiopian-born South African/ British actress.

Life

Pamela Nomvete was born in Ethiopia to South African parents. She spent her childhood in many different countries, and attended boarding school in the United Kingdom, later studying at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.[1] At one point she lived in Manchester, where her sister was a student.[2] After working as an actress in the United Kingdom, Nomvete moved to Johannesburg, South Africa in 1994, after the election of Nelson Mandela as president and the fall of apartheid.

In the 1990s, Nomvete embarked on a television career, achieving fame in the South African soap opera Generations. Her character Ntsiki Lukhele was "TV's ultimate super-bitch: power-hungry, manipulative and deadly".[3] However, Nomvete herself struggled with depression after her husband's infidelity and her divorce. As her life unravelled, at one point she was living in her car, selling clothes for food and cigarettes.[3]

In Zulu Love Letter (2004), Nomvete played Thandi, a single mother and journalist struggling to communicate with her estranged thirteen-year-old daughter. When Thandi was pregnant with her child, she had been attacked by an apartheid hit squad, leaving the child deaf and dumb. Nomvete's performance won her a FESPACO Best Actress Award in 2005.[4]

In 2012–2013, she appeared in the British soap opera Coronation Street, playing Mandy Kamara, an ex-girlfriend of the character Lloyd Mullaney (played by Craig Charles).[5]

In 2013 she published an autobiography, Dancing to the Beat of the Drum: In Search of My Spiritual Home.[6]

Nomvete practices Nichiren Buddhism.[2]

Film appearances

Stage appearances

References
  1. Pamela Nomvete bares all with Thandolwethu, East Coast Radio, 7 May 2019.
  2. South African actress Pamela Nomvete shares her incredible story, jacaranda fm, September 19, 2018.
  3. Eddie Maluleke Kalili, Generations’ Ntsiki spills the beans, YOU, 25 January 2013.
  4. Martin Botha (2013). South African Cinema 1896–2010. Intellect Books. p. 185. ISBN 978-1-78320-330-7.
  5. Amy Duncan, Pamela Nomvete waves goodbye to Coronation Street, Metro, 1 August 2013.
  6. Andile Ndlovu, Ex-Generations star reveals messy personal life, Sowetan Live, 17 January 2013.
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