Name: Bongile Mantsai
Age: 40 years old
Date of Birth: February 3, 1982
Place of Birth: Kayamnandi, Stellenbosch, Western Cape
When an actor endears himself to viewers of a movie or soap opera by putting up a spectacular performance on set, the viewers will try to know more about the actor, including their life before they came to the limelight. This is the case with Bongile Mantsai whose career in acting spans over 15 years and has consistently given viewers a lasting impression of his amazing acting skills in all the productions he has worked on.
Bongile Mantsai is so good that he can fit into any character so well and bring life to it, even a character that is absolutely different from who he is in reality. As amazing as he is on TV and with all the fans who want to know more about him, he still manages to lead a private life.
One of the major works Bongile Mantsai will be remembered for is his role as a villain named Mthunzi Mayisa in the popular South African TV series, Scandal! – a role that gained him very well-deserved popularity. Before he landed this role, the talented actor was involved in other things that are worth learning about. Also, his private life is one that you may also be interested in as well. All of these are what we have captured under the following facts.
1. Bongile Mantsai Grew Up In A Christian Home
He was born into the family of a clergyman who was a bishop. From this, you can easily tell that he was raised in a home where Christian values are upheld. There are also reports that he formed a brass group where he played the trumpet and also wrote an acapella gospel song.
2. He Couldn’t Study Drama Due To Language Barrier
Though Bongile Mantsai seemed to have shown some inclination to music, his passion tilted towards a career in acting and he was so sure that he wanted to be an actor that he decided to study drama in the tertiary institution after matriculating from high school.
Even before applying, his desire to study drama was put on hold as a result of his inability to speak Afrikaans which was a major criterion by Stellenbosch University (SU). This may have been a major setback for him, but he was determined to achieve his dreams of acting.
3. He Started His Career By Performing In Physical Theater
Bongile Mantsai did not allow his inability to apply and study his desired course at the SU to stop him from chasing his dreams. He was so passionate about acting as though he knew that one day he would become an award-winning actor.
What he did to get into the acting industry was to reach out to directors and ask for a chance to attend their classes and luckily for him that worked. He started joining physical theater that involved body movements and language classes. With this, he was opportune to work in a couple of university productions.
4. The Talented Actor Has A Career That Spans Across 15 Years
With a career that spans across more than 15 years, Bongile Mantsai has managed to remain relevant in the industry. He is still landing major roles in popular soap operas, which means his greatest career feature may still be on the way
His acting career has seen him feature in movies like Inxeba: The Wound where he played the role of Vija, the gay lover of Xolani. This 2017 movie that was viewed at the 2017 World Cinema Dramatic Competition gained him a lot of recognition. The following year, he was a part of the cast of Sew the Winter to My Skin and in 2019, he featured in yet another movie that also gained him some level of fame titled Knuckle City – where he featured as a boxer. He also appeared in Nkululeko where he played the character of Poncho, among other prominent roles.
5. He Joined The Cast Of Scandal! In 2018
2018 saw the introduction of Bongile Mantsai as one of the new cast members of e.tv’s Scandal!, which is one of the most viewed soap operas in South Africa. In this series, he plays the role of Mthunzi Mayisa, a cunning villain who can be anything to anybody just to get what he wants. Though viewers
are always quick to attribute the role a person plays in a movie to who they are in reality, Bongile Mantsai has made it clear that he is just the opposite of the character he portrayed in the series.
6. His Great Acting Skills Has Earned Him Awards
Bongile Mantsai’s fantastic performances in renowned movies have not only been noticed by viewers who appreciate what he does but the decision-makers in the industry are also seeing his works. The South African movie industry has encouraged his efforts by the way of several awards. In 2014, he bagged the award for the Best Lead Male Actor at the Naledi Theatre Awards. Following histop-notch performance in Inxeba, he landed the awards for Best Supporting Actor at the 2018 South African Film and Television Awards (SAFTA) event.
At the 2020 SAFTA gong that took place virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, he won the
award for Best Actor on TV soap for his role in Scandal! He also won the award for the Best Actor in a
Feature Film for his role in Knuckle City. It was really a big day for Bongile Mantsai as he bagged two
awards.
Speaking about how he felt about the two big awards that were added to his collections in 2020, he revealed that he was more at peace with them than the first one. Normally, one would expect that his
first award would have been his best, but according to the actor, he was not really happy about the first award because of the controversies that surrounded the movie – Inxeba.
However, his 2020 awards made him feel at peace, knowing that his work was actually recognized without any controversy.
7. Bongile Mantsai Is Not Just An Actor But Also An Art Director
Aside from being good at his job, Bongile Mantsai is also creating another career path for himself in theater production as a director. The actor is a director at Zabalaza, a Baxter Theatre Centre Development Programme developing theatre productions in Western Cape, the same province he hails from.
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