2020 truly is the year for the African entertainment industry, as Netflix announces that its next African original series is in production. JIVA! will be a local African production, from script to screen, and will showcase an all-African cast and crew. Below are some fast facts about what you can expect from Africa’s next original;
JIVA! is fun and energy-packed drama series that follows the life of the talented street dancer Ntombi, who while juggling the demands of a dead-end job, family responsibility and a rocky love life realise that her dance moves could be her ticket out of her working-class neighbourhood in Durban. But first, she must overcome her fears, beat her rivals and sort out the chaos that is her family. Watch the trailer here.
Busisiwe Ntintili, of The Ntintili Factory, is the Creator and Showrunner of JIVA! She is an award-winning writer, director and producer with 20 years of television and film under her belt, including South Africa’s highest-rated television shows, the Peabody Award-winning drama series “Intersexions” and the box office hit movie “Happiness is a Four Letter Word”.
JIVA! is produced by Cape Town-based production team Blue Ice Africa with Busisiwe Ntintili, Adam Friedlander and Tebogo Maila as Executive Producers. JIVA! is the next African and South African commission for Netflix under the management of Dorothy Ghettuba who took up the position to head up the commissioning of Netflix’s African originals in mid-2019 and who is tasked to expand Netflix’s content slate from the African continent from Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
The cast includes break out star, Noxolo Dlamini (Isibaya) playing the lead, Candice Modiselle (Generations; The Legacy), Sne Mbatha (So You Think You Can Dance), Stella Dlangalala (Funny People Africa), Zazi Kunene (Pinky Pinky), Anga Makubalo (Generations), Given Stuurman (Shuga), Ntuthuzelo Grootboom (PE’s Finest Dance Crew), Zamani Mbatha (Isithembiso) and veteran actor Tony Kgoroge (Invictus, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom).