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."