KUTANA NA NOHLE THEMA

Nonhle Thema is the daughter of Derrick Thema and Cynthia Shange. Nonhle’s three siblings are Sihle, Archie and Benele Thema. Her father Derrick is a renowned journalist and author. He wrote the book Kortboys, which is based on the Sophia Town era, he was also the editor of men’s magazine Tribute and previously worked for the Star and Sowetan newspapers. Her mother Cynthia is a former beauty queen, she was Miss Africa South in 1972 and was the first black beauty queen allowed to enter The Miss World Pageant in 1972 to represent South Africa. She later became an actress starring in her own drama series based on her life called uDeliwe, which is what we know today as a reality show. She also starred in the Movie Shaka Zulu as one of Shaka's wives. She then went on to win a living legends award by eThekwini municipality and she also won a 'Star tonight most popular actress award and the big one She went onto win a SAFTA Life Time Achievement Award for her contribution to the South African entertainment industry for the past thirty years.

Nonhle Matriculated from Sandown High School in 1999 and following that attended a college called Allenby Campus. After completing a year in Information Technology she felt that it was not her passion. So she enrolled for a Marketing Management diploma "IMM" because communicating and engaging with people was what she did best.  She went on to win the Award for Best Marketing student, with the most distinctions and beat out over one thousand other students for the title in 2001. In the same year she was also crowned as the first Miss Allenby Campus beauty queen. This was the start of her beauty pageant and modeling career proving beauty and brains could go hand in hand. She later landed her first corporate job as an events coordinator at a company called Marketing Federation. After a year she was head hunted by PriMedia to be their consumer promotions executive whilst she was still studying for her qualification and pursuing television work.

Continuing in her mother’s footsteps in the beauty pageant world led her to be approached by Channel O in 2003 to audition as their main host. She beat out two thousand hopefuls to become one of the eight hosts that were selected. She went on to host shows such as Soul Asylum, Hola, Love Jams, Divas Divine, Oboma, O News, Street Bangers and O Access.  O Access was the first of its kind for the music channel, Channel O, where a South African host Nonhle was sent all over the world to interview international celebrities such as 50 Cent, Kelly Rowland, Lady Gaga, Marley Sons, Keri Hilson, John Legend, Akon, Pharell, Neyo, Chris Brown, Boys II Men, Mary J Blige, T.I., Rihanna, Nelly Furtado, and many more. This show was a ground breaking success being the highest rated show all over Africa, Nonhle enjoyed being an African ambassador and went on to host a fourth season of O Access. Thereafter she moved onto hosting the Channel O music video awards for two consecutive years.

Whilst she was still hosting Channel O she was approached by Vuzu TV, a sister channel, to be the host & face of the brand new channel V - Entertainment, a live entertainment show. She then established her company Nonhle Thema Productions in 2010. Which centers on various Television projects. The first project was a music video she produced in conjunction with Don’t Look Down Productions for the hit track Fairy tale by Liquideep. Nonhle Thema Productions executive produced Nonhle’s new reality show Nonhle Goes To Hollywood alongside Bounce back Media and Vuzu TV. The show was Vuzu’s second highest rated show and has received massive attention from the media and fans both in South Africa and USA.

In her next venture Nonhle became the global brand ambassador and spokesperson for the leading international brand Dark & Lovely. She is the first celebrity to endorse their body lotion and the first African to represent their brand worldwide. Nonhle replaced Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child in September 2009 and was used in a worldwide campaign that included Africa, U.S.A, Canada, Europe, Jamaica and rest of Caribbean.

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Nonhle’s Angels Program was born in 2007.  After her own success she wanted to uplift young girls to be angels. She needed to impart positive energy, thoughts and wisdom she had experienced throughout her journey and career with other young people. The Nonhle’s Angels program was named after her late aunt “Khanyisile Angel Shange," who she credits as being her own angel.

Habari ndo hiyo................