Bio
Sibu Radebe was a South African actor and dancer best known for his starring role as Vuzi on the e.tv soapie Backstage, from 1999-2004.
He acted in numerous television series including Mzansi, Stokvel, Home Affairs, Mtunzini.com and City Ses'la. He also played the role of Snake - a hip and opinionated aspiring actor working as a bartender - in the SABC1 drama series Gaz'lam, in 2005.
Radebe was born and grew up in Soweto and started his professional TV career at the age of 12 in the teen magazine show X-Attitude.
He studied drama at the National School of the Arts and was cast as dance student Vusi in the soapie Backstage immediately after leaving school. He also studied at AFDA.
Radebe worked extensively in theatre including playing the role of Lefou in Disney's Beauty and the Beast in 2008, for which he received two Naledi Awards: Best Breakthrough Performer and Best Comedy Performance. He won another Naledi award for Best Performance in a Musical in the pantomime Pinocchio, where he played the title role.
He also had a leading role in the 2010 FIFA World Cup musical The Boys in the Photograph.
Other theatre work included Marat Sade, Rosencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet at Maynardville, Memory of How it Feels and Paul Slabolepszy's comedy For Your Ears Only.
Musicals he appeared in include Chicago, We Will Rock You, Hairspray, Operamania, Jesus Christ Superstar and Showboat, among many others.
In 2011 he joined the SABC1 dance reality competition Turn It Out as a permanent judge.
Sibu was multilingual, speaking Afrikaans, French, Tswana, English and Zulu.
He was diagnosed with cancer in late 2018 and after a year of chemotherapy succumbed to the disease on Thursday 9 January, 2020. He was 37.