Bio
Mmabatho Montsho is a South African actress and director best known for her television roles as Lumka Dhlomo in the SABC1 soapie Generations, as Thembi Phakathi in the e.tv soapie Rhythm City, and as Lerato in the M-Net drama series Jacob's Cross.
Born in Soweto at the then Baragwanath Hospital, she attended Greenside High School. She has two brothers and a sister and spent her childhood years in Carletonville, the Free State and the City of Ekurhuleni.
Upon leaving school she started her own fashion label called Black Olive Designs with a high school friend, designing and selling clothes at the B&B Rooftop market. Their line was displayed at SA Fashion Week 2004.
Montsho's love of art and languages led her to do an audiovisual multimedia course through UNISA. She was on the verge of doing a music business learnership when she was cast in Generations.
In 2007 Montsho also appears in the role of Lerato, the materialistic wife of the lead character Jacob, in the drama M-Net drama series Jacob's Cross.
She is currently starring as Thembi Phakati – a young journalist who is struggling to keep her alcoholic mother, a gospel diva, on the rails and away from the nosey paparazzi - in the e.tv soapie Rhythm City.
The arts remain her passion, taking part in dance theatre, visual art and playing the saxophone. She has been nominated for acting awards, is a recipient of a Style Award and one of Cosmopolitan’s Awesome Women of 2007.
Mmabatho was appointed as one of Ekurhuleni's 2010 ambassadors.
In April 2009 she replaced Anel Alexander, Masello Motana and Eloise Cupido as the sole host of the SABC2 arts and culture magazine show Artcha, from the third season on.
In 2012 she joined the SABC1 reality series Play Your Part as a co-presenter (with Katleho Sinivasan) of the second season.
In 2017 she was one of the judges on the SABC3 reality competition series The Final Cut, in which contestants face weekly dramatic challenges in order to win one of two parts on SABC drama series.
Mmabatho is also a director, with directing credits including the e.tv soapie Scandal! and the SABC1 sitcom Thuli noThulani.
Mmabatho Montsho as Lerato in Jacob's Cross