There is a particular lilt that enters Noluthando Ngema’s voice when she talks about her craft, a warmth that suggests she’s not just recounting her journey in the South African television landscape but reliving it. The 27-year-old actress from Pietermaritzburg speaks about acting the way some people speak about first loves: with certainty and with a kind of passion that makes you immediately believe her when she says this is the one thing she ever wanted to become. In conversation, as she shares the story of how she got here, you can’t help but believe in divine timing, not in an abstract, mystical way, but in something real and tangible.

“I used to tell my relatives all the time that I want to be famous,” Ngema shares with a light laugh, recalling how she fell in love with the arts at a very young age. And though she knew she wanted to be a performer, she didn’t know exactly how she would get there. “I didn’t know whether I would be a hip-hop star or a musician or something else, but I knew that I wanted to be famous and entertain,” she says. Her flame was sparked by watching shows like iCarly and Hannah Montana. That love for the arts only grew as she took drama in high school before going to Johannesburg to obtain her BA in Motion Picture Medium, majoring in directing, writing, and editing at AFDA. With the way her voice comes to life when she explains her passion for acting, it’s impossible to miss how deeply she cares about the craft. It’s easy to assume that someone with this much enthusiasm would immediately throw herself into auditions after graduation, eager to break into the industry. Which is why it’s both ironic and surprising to learn that she intentionally took a detour, choosing to try something else first.

So what exactly was this detour? And more importantly, why did someone so certain of her dreams choose to pause them? The detour, as it turns out, wasn’t born from doubt but from something else entirely: exhaustion. The actress explains that as soon as she graduated, her family was curious to know how soon she’d start with auditions, but much to everyone’s surprise, Ngema wanted to take a step back for a while and get a 9-to-5 job instead because she wanted to take a breath first. “Because of how daunting and time-consuming this industry can get, I experienced it first-hand during varsity, and I knew how mentally and physically tiring it can be. I felt like I just wanted a year or two to breathe before going back into it”, she says. And in an unfortunate coincidence, this happened around the same time as the country went into lockdown due to the global pandemic, COVID-19. And she knew that the acting industry, much like most industries and livelihoods, was destabilised and trying to break into it at that would’ve possibly been challenging. So, she got a job as an administrator at a clinic and stayed there for a year and a couple of months before resigning. She then transitioned into content creation for a while before starting to audition in 2024, and she achieved her breakthrough. 

I genuinely believe that it was because of the grace of God and trusting the vision that he has implanted in my head,” Ngema says about her breakthrough into the industry. The actress explains that she saw an open-call audition from Tshedza Pictures and sent her first-ever self-tape a year ago, which landed her first role. “It must’ve been around the 2nd of September last year when I got a callback, so I could come in and do a live audition, and that’s how I landed my role on Outlaws, and the rest is history.” And just as she was getting closer to wrapping up the shooting of Outlaws, another audition brief came out, and she went for it and landed her second role on Mzansi Magic’s iThonga, the telenovela that debuted Noluthando Ngema on South African screens as Mbali Dladla. As Ngema recalls her journey into the industry, she credits it all to the grace of God. “This has been such a beautiful journey and I am very grateful for all the blessings and the outpour the Lord has placed in my life. He has set the table for me and continues to do so, and I’m super grateful to Him,” she says. “My breakthrough yenzeka njengoba uNkulunkulu wayethe izokwenzeka”. 

Landing the role of Sihle Biyela on Outlaws was her breakthrough, and it would come with its own challenges, of course. However, the role being a recast added another layer of complexity, but it didn’t become a major concern for Ngema until a later stage. “I was so intensely excited when I started shooting Outlaws, and I was so focused on putting my best foot forward that I didn’t give myself time to doubt myself,” she says. “When they would say things like ‘okay, jump on a horse’, I was so excited to be doing all these things that I didn’t have thoughts like: ‘would the previous actor have done it like this or like that'”. The little trickles of doubt and imposter syndrome surprisingly started coming in when she started shooting for iThonga. Ngema shares that her biggest concern was coming into an already well-established character, and she wasn’t sure if her enactment of the role would be well-received by the audience. “Actors don’t interpret the same characters in the same way. We play beats differently, we have different ways of impersonating things, we have different gestures and mannerisms that put into a character”, she says, explaining that she started really thinking about how the audience would receive her interpretation and enactment of Sihle Biyela as a newcomer in the industry. But luckily for her, she landed the role of Mbali on iThonga just as she was wrapping up shooting Outlaws. Not only did this allow audiences to get introduced to her as an actor, but it also allowed her to grow as a performer. 

“Being on iThonga has helped me refine my skills as a performer. The long-format of a telenovela allows you to spend more time with your character and get to know your character because your character grows and you grow along with it,” she states. I also work with a lot of great people as well and i get to observe and learn how the greats do it so being on iThonga has been such an amazing experience for me”, she shares. And not only did iThonga help her grow, but it aired way before the announcement for Outlaws was made, allowing the audience to get used to her artistry before they could see her performance as Sihle Biyela on Outlaws. And while viewers will have to wait and see her interpretation of Sihle, Ngema promises it’ll be worth it. “You can expect plot twist after plot twist”, she shares excitedly. “Everyone worked so hard on this, and everyone was so intentional and passionate, audiences will definitely feel the intentionality and the passion through the screen”, she says. 

Ironically, early this year, as production on both shows overlapped, Ngema almost found herself face-to-face with the very exhaustion she’d taken some time off to avoid. She shares that when she started shooting for Outlaws, she hit the ground running. It wasn’t until she started shooting for iThonga that she realised that this was a very demanding and high-energy industry. She almost found herself on the verge of a burnout and started seeing the physical toll it was taking on her, but she quickly took action to take care of herself and avoid getting exhausted while shooting iThonga. “I think what really helped me was taking it easy on myself. Rest became so crucial, so in between scenes or when they would call a lunch break, I allowed myself to rest”, she says. She also explains that her survival strategy included befriending the on-set medic, “Medic and I became best friends because every time we were on set, I wasn’t shy to ask for what I needed to rejuvenate my body, whether it was vitamins or anything else”, she explains. And so she quickly learned that rest is not optional in a high-performance and time-consuming environment. 

Her support system has been crucial to navigating the demands of the industry, and at the heart of it all is her mother. “My mom has been my biggest supporter through all of this,” Ngema says with evident gratitude. “I wouldn’t be here without her belief in me and her constant encouragement. She’s always reminded me to trust myself and trust the process”, she says as she reflects on the huge wave of gratitude she feels when she thinks about how her mother, along with her brother and sister, has encouraged and supported her every step of the way. Her friends and family form a strong network around her, and when the industry gets overwhelming, she knows exactly where to turn. “My family is a great part of my life because they are just anchors to who Noluthando Ngema is”. 

October marks exactly one year since Ngema officially entered the industry, and the timing feels significant. “It feels like such a full circle moment because I’m seeing all that I’ve sown be reaped and harvested,” she says. In just twelve months, she’s gone from sending out her first self-tape to starring in two major productions, and the dreams and goals are only getting bigger. Her ambitions extend beyond the screen. “I would love to see my name on the credits like ‘directed by Noluthando Ngema’ or ‘written by Noluthando Ngema,'” she shares. “I definitely have that desire, and in the coming years, I am working towards all of that because I really want to work behind the screen as well”. 

Maybe the year at the clinic wasn’t a detour at all. Maybe it was exactly what someone who’d been chasing fame since childhood needed: time to understand that wanting something and being ready for it are two different things. She trusted a vision that was bigger than her own timeline. And when the doors finally opened, she walked through them with the kind of clarity that only comes from knowing exactly who you are and what you’re meant to do. 

As Outlaws prepares to introduce audiences to her version of Sihle Biyela and iThonga continues to let viewers fall in love with Mbali Dladla, Noluthando Ngema is just getting started. And if the first year is any indication of what’s to come, the table that’s been set for her is only going to get fuller. And knowing her, she’ll continue to trust the vision, trust the timing, and trust that what’s meant for her will never miss her.