Makhaola Ndebele - Performer | Writer | Director

Makhaola Ndebele is a South African theatre-maker, actor, and cultural leader whose two-decade career spans stage, screen, and academia. Born in exile in Lesotho and raised between continents, his storytelling draws deeply from personal and ancestral memory.

His latest work, Cantos of a Life in Exile—which won the 2024 Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award—fuses Southern African oral traditions with contemporary performance to explore themes of identity, migration, and belonging. Written, directed, and performed by Ndebele, the piece is a powerful reflection on diasporic experience.

As a director, Ndebele has helmed acclaimed productions including August Strindberg’s The Father, Zakes Mda’s Mother of All Eating, and Moagi Modise’s Lepatata—the first fully Setswana-language play staged at the Market Theatre, which won Best Ensemble at the Naledi Theatre Awards.

His screen appearances include the Sundance-winning This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (2019), Jody Foster’s Money Monster (2016), and The Last Ranger (2024), a conservation-themed short film recently nominated for an Academy Award.

Currently a lecturer at Rhodes University, Ndebele is committed to mentoring the next generation of South African performers and theatre-makers. Cantos of a Life in Exile represents the culmination of a life shaped by movement, memory, and the pursuit of cultural truth.