We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Luvuyo Mpofu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Luvuyo below.

Luvuyo, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

The first time I knew I wanted to pursue my art as a professional pathway, was when I decided I didn’t want to become the president anymore, which I haven’t completely given up on yet, I would love to introduce some fun laws and I have great ideas, however those ideas might be better suited for creativity. I was heavily involved in theatre during my High school years. I studied the dramatic arts, which taught me the history of drama and its evolution through the years. However, as much as I was involved in the arts, it did not occur to me until much later that I could make a life out it. I was indecisive about what I wanted to do with my life after High school but, I knew I needed to figure it out. I had many ideas of what I thought I wanted to do, but it wasn’t until I was on a phone call with a friend that it clicked for me, as she said “I always love listening to you tell stories, you’re a great storyteller”, the magical click moment in my brain didn’t happen then, but what she said, stuck with me. I began to notice that many others would repeat those same sentiments, as I heard it more and more, its fair to say I might have been a bit slow to the realisation, but I knew that whatever it is I was going to do I wanted to tell stories. I then had my ‘ah huh’ moment as I realised I’ve been storytelling as a performer this whole time and I want to continue doing that. From then onwards I had my heart set out on being an actor and storyteller and to make it my life and pursue it professionally.

Luvuyo, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started off my Journey by going to school, I got my degree in acting for film. I credit a lot of what I know to my school days, as I learnt about all the amazing practitioners that came before me, who revolutionised film and Television through their constant pursuit of creating transcending pieces. I took time to study the likes of August Wilson, Oscar Micheaux and Denzel Washington. The stories of these amazing individuals fuelled a lot of my inspiration to create and represent my community through what I do. As an Actor I spent time reading plays and working on my understanding of different characters and getting into their psychology, trying to push myself further each time I take on a character and to be able to portray that character as truthfully as possible. However, as I was finding the truth of characters I knew I also needed to find the truth in myself and to get curios with the life around me that I so wished to represent. It was important to me to not only dedicate my time to the art of storytelling, but to live my life and experience things that will eventually become stories and to witness the stories that unfold around me everyday and the characters that exist in my world and the world around me. During this journey, I was blessed to meet and befriend the Khulula Productions family. I was grateful to meet them in a time in my life that I was discovering my creative outlets, as they began to show me that my creativity can be brought to life, they instilled in me the virtue of action of putting your dreams and plans into action and to not be passive with them. Around that same time my best friend Julius and I started bringing together our creative ideas to find better ways to put them into the world. Julius would spend hours working on animation and would give me the not so long role of being the voices of the characters we created. I began to expand my craft beyond just what I started off as, I became and Assistant Director, a Writer, an Assistant animator. I was grateful to be introduced to the many mediums of storytelling and to Tukise for bringing me into the world of looping and to Nisa Ward to be an amazing mentor. It was through looping that I was able to work on my first studio projects and got to experience the process of our favourite blockbuster movies being worked on. I was extremely overwhelmed at the beginning, being apart of such a talented loop group with many talented individuals whom I got to witness and learn from, I had made the mistake of trying to disqualify myself when my mentor reaffirmed that all the rooms I was beginning to walk into were spaces I deserved to be. As I continue to grow, learn and garner experiences I will continue to work on my craft and tell stories in all the different capacities they exist and not be limited by my imagination. A special thanks to all the amazing individuals who have contributed so much to my journey and to my family who continue to uphold me through it all, all of those experiences and people continue to add to who I am and who I am becoming.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Getting paid for what I do Is definitely one of my favourite rewards as an artist, nothing like getting paid for what you love to do, but like most artists the best aspect of the craft is the journey through creating. Being involved in the flow of creation and the journey from the idea lighting up in your head to allowing the seed to grow and being immersed in the vision itself, as well as being able to bear witness to the vision coming to fruition, and being able to sit in the enjoyment of what you’ve created and reflecting on the journey that took place to lead you to its final form. That aspect of being a creative will always be priceless to me ,and is the most rewarding prize I receive as an artist as I get to see a story grow and unfold as I too grow through the process and evolve through the journey.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I started off as someone who only did acting and rarely anything else, I focused a lot of my time and energy towards my acting, and when I wasn’t doing that I found different hobbies to fill my time. I always had fun and exciting ideas, but I always treated them as just thoughts to play with in my mind. It wasn’t until I took a writing class did I acknowledge my thoughts as creative ideas that can come to life. I began writing all of my ideas into scripts, and all of those into filmed content. I began creating the very stories I wished to see myself in as an actor, I had not allowed myself to take the power of my journey into my own hands and to be a creator. I had this idea that I’d just land a role that would set my entire life up, a role that would be dependent on another to create it, when I could create it all myself. This shift in my thinking was the biggest pivotal moment of my journey, as I stopped viewing myself as an accessory to stories but as a producer of them.

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