Vatiswa Viola Ndara

Vatiswa Ndara was born in Middelburg in the Eastern Cape in 1970. She started her career in 1994 as a newsreader at Radio Transkei, then went on to present on some of South Africa's best-known stations, including Kaya FM, Metro FM, 5FM and Highveld Stereo. Her screen breakthrough came as Ma'mfundisi in Generations. After that she became one of Mzansi's most loved actresses, with roles in Home Affairs, Tsha Tsha, Society, Muvhango, Igazi and the film Salvation. She won the inaugural SAFTA for Best Supporting Actress and serves as a juror for the International Emmy Awards.

In 2019 she wrote an open letter to South Africa's Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture about how actors in the industry were being exploited. The letter went viral and sparked a national conversation. She was blacklisted as a result. That reckoning became her first book, Unfiltered: My Unglamorous Odyssey in the World of South African Entertainment, a tell-all memoir about low pay, exploitation and survival behind the glamour of South African television.

Blacklisted at home, with no protection from her own government, she left. She went into self-exile in the Netherlands – where she sought asylum. Unfiltered: Welcome to Holland. Terms and Conditions Apply: My Dutch Asylum Struggle is her account of that journey. In both books Vatiswa refuses to look away. She's witty, sardonic, vulnerable and unfiltered.