Tshepo Joseph Senatle is a young and rising South African actor famously known for his role as Koloi in the SABC1 weekday soapie, Skeem Saam.

Tshepo Joseph Senatle was born on the 15th of August in Ottosdal situated in the North West.

Education

He attended Dumisang Primary school from Grade 1 till 3, until grade 3 and from there relocated to Winterton for a few years then relocated back to Ottosdal to complete Grade 12 in Realeka Secondary School.

Family

He is the breadwinner at home, his gogo is back home in the North West and he has to support her, his mother and his three siblings, Tshepiso, Ali and Anes.

His mother has always been nervous about his acting career given the fact that it is a fickle industry and one can never tell what the future holds although she remains his biggest cheerleader and pillar of support.

Passion

Apart from acting, Tshepo has a passion for cars and body work. If not acting, then a qualified Auto Body Specialist is another career he would have wanted to go into. And most probably have his own car show.

Career

Tshepo has gone from being what he calls a “township actor” at community recreational halls to being on the small screen and it is still surreal. Growing up in Ottosdal, North West where there weren’t a lot of resources and dreams of stardom were just dreams, he managed to push through.

In 2016, with only a bag full of clothes, he took a taxi to Johannesburg to try and find work.

At the time his grandmother, Ousisi, was working as a domestic worker in Northcliff but he could not stay with her in the backroom she had at her workplace so he asked to stay with friends from back home who were in Johannesburg.

He came to Joburg expecting to find work immediately in the show business industry, but it took a while. Having a grandmother and mother who had reservations about him being in the big city made him push himself even more.

After not being able to further his education due to financial reasons and having a one year- old son at the time, he had to make things right and try not to disappoint his mother, Kefilwe and grandmother.

After months of struggling to find work as an actor, he got an opportunity to be an extra on Skeem Saam.

“I was probably passing by or something. You know, extras don’t talk,” he said.

He then became an extra on other shows such as Mzansi Magic’s Isibaya.

However, in the meantime, he had to make money. Before getting a job at a panel beating shop, he was a parking marshal at Montecasino in Fourways just to try to pay rent in Diepsloot, a nearby township.

He would skip work, make excuses so he could be on set as an extra, but he eventually had to quit to fulfil his love and passion for acting.

He is currently acting on Skeem Saam as Koloi, viewers had watched over the past few days as a limping Koloi was chased by a lion and feared the real life escaped lions may have come to “finish Koloi off”.

Koloi and his friends had got up to mischief during a school trip and struggled to find their way to the bus.

He injured his leg on the way, which made things worse when they spotted a lion coming their way.

Koloi managed to outrun the lion, but his friend Jonas was not so lucky.