South African Actress Pearl Thusi to Star in First African Netflix Series

Pearl Thusi (file photo).
10 December 2018

Cape Town — Pearl Thusi will star in Queen Sono, Netflix's first original series from Africa, Channel24 reports.

"This was a dream of mine since I was a little girl," Thusi said. "When the universe/God says 'I heard you'. This is what it feels like. I'm so proud and grateful for everyone that made this happen." The action-drama series will see Thusi star as Queen Sono, a highly talented spy with a mission to better the lives of her fellow Africans, according to TimesLive.

Creator and director Kagiso Lediga, who will run the series along with executive producer Tamsin Andersson, said the series is a great opportunity for South Africa. "We are delighted to create this original series with Netflix, and are super excited by their undeniable ability to take this homegrown South African story to a global audience. We believe Queen Sono will kick the door open for more awesome stories from this part of the world."

The series, which is due to start production in 2019, forms part of Netflix's plans to commission more original content from African creators, Variety reports. Netflix vice-president of international originals, Erik Barmack, who spoke at last week's Content London conference said the streaming giant is "in the process of looking at opportunities in Africa", adding: "There's going to come a time when half of the top 10 of most-watched shows in a given year are going to come from outside of the U.S."

AllAfrica publishes around 400 reports a day from more than 100 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct.

Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us.