South Africa’s Golden Girl: From Local Screens to Global Acclaim
It looks like South Africans are going to have to continue sharing the talented local beauty and actress, Kim Engelbrecht, with the rest of the world.
Engelbrecht can be seen in the lead role – alongside highly acclaimed British actor, Iain Glen – in the much-anticipated drama series, Reyka, airing next month on our local screens. Chosen by Variety magazine as one of the 10 buzziest shows hitting MipTV (longest running international television market taking place annually in Cannes), Reyka follows an emotionally broken but brilliantly minded criminal profiler on the hunt for a brutal serial killer in the cane fields of Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.
This past week, Reyka had its official worldwide premiere at Monaco’s prestigious 60th annual Monte-Carlo Television Festival. This is the first South African television series to have ever opened at the festival; a prestigious honour for Reyka, giving the audience its first critical look at the television series on a global stage.
Reyka is also the first South African crime thriller produced jointly by UK production company, Fremantle. The series follows the story of how Glen, as a deranged banana farmer, Angus Speelman, abducts Engelbrecht’s character at the age of 12 during the heightened period of South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994 and holds her captive for many years.
Adding another milestone to her achievements, Kim has also announced that she will be joining the Season 2 cast of Ridley Scott’s HBO Max’s sci-fi drama, Raised by Wolves. Kim will play the character Decima, a prominent scientist/weapons developer with a ruthless edge. Raised by Wolves is currently in production in South Africa.
Being a part of these ground-breaking international productions, Kim describes the experience as ‘an opportunity to work with actors I admire and revere. I count myself extremely fortunate to share the screen with award-winning performers, some of whom are the best in the world.’
Kim has undoubtedly come an incredibly long way in her career. Local fans first fell in love with this talented actress when she played the role of Lolly on SABC 3’s popular day-time soapie, Isidingo. From growing up in Belhar in the Western Cape to global acclaim, Kim has since embraced roles in top-performing series and films over the years, including the role of The Mechanic on the American superhero series The Flash, and appearing in the US supernatural series, Dominion.
Playing strong, complex, thinking women seems to be roles that Kim gravitates towards recently. Gone are the days where women are portrayed as passive, silent characters waiting in the shadows. “no more …men are the head and women are the neck …… women are the head, neck, shoulders and spine ……we make the entire body move.”
In a recent interview with the esteemed Variety Magazine, Kim boasts with pride about the promising evolution of the South African film and television industry.
https://variety.com/2021/tv/global/dominion-kim-engelbrecht-fremantle-m-net-reyka-1234974468/]
South Africans can enjoy the talents of Ms. Engelbrecht on our TV screens at the end of July 2021 with the debut of Reyka and in 2022 in Raised by Wolves.
Reyka is produced by Fremantle (UK), M-Net (SA), Serena Cullen Productions (UK), Quizzical Productions (SA) and written and created by Rohan Dickson. Fremantle is solely responsible for international distribution.
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Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.
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