A natural born storyteller, Thati’s path to becoming one of the most promising directors in South Africa has been full of surprising detours. After completing a degree in mathematics and statistics at UCT (and working for a short spell in marketing) she applied to the Graduate Film Program at NYU. There Thati made her short film “Lerato”, winning Best Director at the New York Fusion Film Festival and the New Talent prize at CICLOPE Africa 2019.
Thati’s narrative prowess soon saw her helm smash Netflix series’ Blood & Water and Savage Beauty, while her hilarious spots for brands like VW and Spotify quickly put her on the map as a major new commercial talent. Her rare eye for characters and situations and her sense of timing and performance mean she’s as comfortable telling vivid human stories as she is at making people laugh out loud.