This story previously appeared in the print edition of Drum Magazine.Happy 54th birthday to Actor Jamie Bartlett. He has been with shows like Isidingo as Mike O’Riley and Rhythm City as David Genaro just to name a few…All the best to him🎊🎉🎁🎂💙.

When his son hit his final year at university, he felt a fundamental shift. After working hard for so many years to give his only child a good life, Jamie Bartlett decided the time had come to focus on himself.

Having spent the past 13 years playing David Genaro in Rhythm City, he wanted to spread his wings, so he quit the popular soap.

“I’ve been playing David for a long time – I’m not saying he’s easy, but my God, we have explored every part of him,” Jamie tells DRUM.

“I know what he smells like, I know how much wax he has in his ears. It had come to an end.” David will go down as one of the meanest men in Mzansi soapies – the guy who relentlessly terrorised his rivals without so much as a thought to the devastation he wrought in the process of getting what he wanted. But karma has a way of catching up with someone and in the end, the soapie villain died the way he lived. In a dramatic scene, David is gunned down by Suffocate (Mduduzi Mabaso) and Khulekani (Mncedisi Shabangu), who’s hellbent on revenge after David killed his son.With a wealth of experience under his belt, the award-winning actor believes in sharing his knowledge. That is why Jamie hosts a masterclass at The Finishing College, an accredited private college in Bramley, Joburg.

“I teach other actors and corporates confidence – things like being comfortable in your own skin, how to leave an impression on somebody, how to speak with a smile in your voice. “That’s where I want to be right now.” It’s a far cry from the long hours working on set. Even so, he’ll miss playing diabolical David. Jamie was so immersed in the character he’d sometimes tell the scriptwriters “no, he would never do that”. He knew David inside out.