Dara Beth - Director

Kamogelo Mhlantla - Andile

Samantha Carlisle - Amelia

Dara Beth:

Dara Beth is a short, angry, Jewish feminist with a desire to tell stories. Their main focus is to provide an audience with a language and vocabulary to explore new worlds.

Dara graduated from UCT with an honours degree in theatre-making and a distinction in drama. Upon graduating, they were awarded the “Ruth Peffer’s Prize for Most Promising Student”.

Dara has written and staged multiple original works for various festivals and theatres such as Nasty Womxn, Just A Song And A Dance, Lolly, and all my ex-lovers are dead to name a few. Dara has been nominated for Fleur du Cap, BroadwayWorld, and Kanna awards. When not producing their own work, Dara often works as a facilitator and director.

Kamogelo Mhlantla: 

Kamogelo Mhlantla was born and raised in Gqeberha (formally known as Port Elizabeth) and is currently based in Johannesburg.

He Received his tertiary education at AFDA Cape Town and obtained a Bachelor's Degree in Live Performance. Upon graduating he spent a further 3 years in Cape Town where he acted in various films and television series such as Poppie Nongena (2018), Pinky Pinky (2019) and Signal High Season 2 (2020). He also stage managed 3 plays: Curl Up and Dye directed by Wynne Bredenkamp, The Mother of All Eating written by Zakes Mda and directed by Chris Weare, and He Had it Coming written by Mike van Graan, all of which went to The National Arts Festival in Makhanda. 

He moved to Johannesburg to further his career and acting ability. With the move he has had the opportunity to book a commercial which is doing its second run on Television, social media etc. and took the initiative to put on a stage production (The Year of the Bicycle) with a colleague which had a successful run on Cape Town.

Following on from a successful 2022 run with The Year of the Bicycle, they went on to perform at The Cradle of Creativity in Johannesburg 2023. During the course of 2023, Kamogelo went on to feature in a Momentum commercial that is currently doing a six month run.

Samantha Carlisle: 

Samantha Carlisle is an actress and makeup artist from Makhanda. She owes her love and appreciation of the arts to The National Arts Festival, which she has attended almost every year since she was a child. After living in Makhanda for 18 years she moved to Cape Town to study at AFDA.

She completed a three-year degree in Live Performance, graduating Dean’s List as well as winning the Best Screen Actress award for her performance in her graduation film, For Sale. She was also nominated for the Best Stage Actress award for her performance as Mrs. Dubois in Curl Up and Dye. Curl Up and Dye went on to win the award for Best Stage Production.

One of her student films, Deluge, travelled to film festivals, nationally and internationally. This led to her being nominated for the Best Lead Actress award at The African Film Festival.

Before covid struck, she worked in various capacities at The Fugard Theatre. After The Fugard sadly closed its doors, she found work on the set of Some Mothers’ Sons, the film adaptation of Mike van Graan’s renowned play. She worked as the head makeup artist and played the role of Renee. Some Mothers’ Sons travelled to film festivals in Africa, Europe, and America.

In 2022 she co-produced and performed in a production of The Year of the Bicycle, directed by Dara Beth. The Year of the Bicycle has enjoyed many successful perfromances in Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and Johannesburg. 

Most recently she had a small role in the Afrikaans series Wyfie on Showmax.