PAULINE MALEFANE

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Pauline Malefane


Pauline Malefane was born in South Africa in 1976. She grew up in the township of Khayelitsha and went to Masiyile High School. It was then that she was introduced to choral music, by her choir mistress Nolufefe Mtshabe.

In 1993 she joined the Simon Estes choir, now known as Heavenly Voices. After studying at the University of Cape Town’s College of Music she joined the Lyric Theatre company Dimpho Di Kopane to play Mary in Yiimimangaliso - the Mysteries and the title role in Bizet’s Carmen in a new translation commissioned from Rory Bremner. Both of these productions transferred to London.

Her performance in Carmen was received with tremendous critical acclaim. The Observer described her performance as ‘the Carmen by which others should be measured’. She has since played the role in Australia and the USA as well as at a Presidential Command Performance in Johannesburg. As Mary in Yiimimangaliso - the Mysteries she has played in the West End, New York, and at the Spoleto, Dublin, New Haven and Perth international festivals. As well as performing the title role she co-wrote and translated into Xhosa the feature film U-Carmen eKhayelitsha which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005. For her performance in the film she was awarded a Golden Thumb by America’s Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert.

In 2006 she acted, co-wrote and translated the film Son of Man which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the USA and has recently won Best Feature at the Pan African film festival in Los Angeles and the Founders Prize at Michael Moore’s Festival in Michigan. In the autumn of 2006 she sang Bess in Porgy and Bess in Cape Town and Sweden. In November 2007 she won Best Actress at the South African TV and Film Awards for Son of Man.

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