Pallance Dladla in Shadow | Class Act's original artwork
SABC1's acting reality search Class Act has to go down as one of
the most successful South African series of all time.
And today (8 March) is the ultimate proof of this.
Five Class Act finalists go global in 190 countries with the debut of
Shadow, the first South African series to stream on Netflix.
It loads today and the Class Actors in the cast are:
- Season 2 runner-up Pallance Dladla, who stars as Detective Shadow,
- Season 2 winner Tumie Ngumla,
- Season 1 finalists Thabo Rametsi and Vaughn Lucas,
- and Season 1 winner Sdumo Mtshali, who won the SAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama this past weekend for his role as Mandla on Mzansi Magic's Is'thunzi.
What an incredible feat for a reality show!
Everyone knows that reality shows are notorious for making promises they don't keep but Class Act has had a truly long-lasting and powerful impact on the country's TV and film industry.
All of the five Classy actors in Shadow have had highly successful careers since they were discovered on the show, garnering credit after credit in Mzansi's top series.
Tumie and Pallance with their fellow Class Act 2 finalists Mandisa Nduna and Abdul Khoza
Things exploded for Pallance in 2013 - two years after his Class Act - when he landed a triple whammy of starring roles in SABC1's Intersexions and Tempy Pushas, and Mzansi Magic's Isibaya.
He's starred as Isibaya's Jabulani Zungu for seven seasons and won the SAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in a Soap/Telenovela for his role last year.
Tumie also starred in Tempy Pushas, where she played Princess in all three seasons.
She went on to star in SABC1's political thriller Ihawu le Sizwe, their supernatural anthology series Emoyeni and Mzansi Magic's iNumber Number, the series, where she played Thuli after appearing in the iNumber Number movie (known as Avenged internationally).
Tumie plays Zola in Shadow, one of the four starring cast, along with Pallance, Amanda du-Pont and Khathu Ramabulana, who plays Detective Max Makena.
Vaughn's Class Act finalist portfolio shot
Vaugh has made his mark in Afrikaans TV, starting with kykNET's Getroud met Rugby. He had a starring role on the first two seasons between 2016 and 2018 and he currently plays Nathan on SABC2's 7de Laan.
He's also been part of the Class Act alumni on Isibaya in the recurring role of a Meth dealer.
Thabo put his Class Act into film where he played his breakout role of Solomon "Kalushi" Mahlangu, in the 2016 true life movie Kalushi.
On the TV scene, he most recently starred in Emoyeni, along with Tumie.
And Sdumo... where do we begin?! The man acts so much he's never himself.
After winning the first season of Class Act he starred in iNumber Number the movie, which he won on Class Act.
He was snapped into TV immediately with a starring role on Intersexions in 2010, the same year as his win.
He went on to play medical student Maidi on Rhythm City and after that he didn't sign on the dotted line unless it was a headline role.
He starred on all three seasons of Mzansi Magic's Saints and Sinners, he was also part of the Tempy Pushas brat pack and he's headlined as S'bu Ndlovu on Isibaya for seven seasons.
Proof that Class Act was the ultimate acting academy.
Which poses the pressing and distressing question: WHERE IS IT? Why did it disappear when it was such an enormous success?!
This makes it a tragedy too because it would have gone from strength to strength if it had lasted and remained an SABC1 property. It would have created abundance for both the channel and the industry. What a shame that it's dead.
Now it can only live on through the actors... and through the internet, where its stars will now be seen by the world.
For more about Shadow and the cast, tap here:
TVSA Shadow Show Page