Who knew the illicit handbag trade was a dog-eat-dog world?
You either eat or get eaten.
All for the statement of a Birkin, Chanel or a Louis Vuitton handbag.
To an ordinary person, the frenzy is unnecessary, but in the influencer world, the handbag carries your worth and status in circles of power.
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In the Bad Influencer series, we see how a single mother capitalises on the staged detoxification of this high life as she navigates climbing the ladder of the illicit trades under the microscope of a police officer she falls in love with.
With this intriguing story, the creator, Kudi Maradzika, wanted to capture the intersection of two worlds that she is intrigued by.
"Influencer culture and the world of crime. The original concept always had influencers, crime and counterfeit bags at its core, although the story did evolve in development. Bad Influencer allowed me to explore these worlds with humour, social tension and emotional depth, while still having fun with the wildness of internet culture."
She tells Drum that she also wanted to interrogate how we measure value in a world where women don't have power or financial freedom.
"Influence, beauty, wealth and success are often curated illusions, and chasing them without grounding can feel exhilarating but can be dangerous. That said, I also want audiences to laugh, reflect, and question the ladders we climb to attain power and social currency."
Led by Jo-Anne Reyneke, Cindy Mahlangu and Thapelo Mokoena, the cast brings to life the female-driven crime story rooted in the belly of Johannesburg streets.
Art plays in the hands of reality as the Zimbabwean producer also leads in various male-dominated creative spaces.
"I'm redefining power on my own terms. I'm taking up space, building ecosystems instead of waiting for permission, and creating opportunities for others as I climb. My responsibility is not just to tell stories, but to help create platforms and initiatives where African women can own, build and lead their creative futures."
She explains how she bridges storytelling across TV, comics and gaming.
"I build world's first. The medium becomes an extension of the universe. Each platform deepens the audience experience and longevity of the intellectual property (IP). Africa doesn't yet have the full transmedia infrastructure, but that's also the opportunity. The goal is not just to make content from one IP, but also to build entire story universes with unique offerings at each product vertical, from video games to merchandise, to animation and film.
"IP is legacy. It's economic freedom. It's how we build generational wealth in storytelling," she adds.
From as far back as she can remember, her imaginative mind has always bred stories itching to be told.
"As a child, I would write my own version of Peter Rabbit stories, and later, I'd write plays in high school. That instinct followed me into journalism, and eventually into film production and screenwriting. For me, storytelling has always been a way of making sense of human behaviour, power, identity, and possibility."
Her upbringing between different cultures, countries and identities also turned her perspective into a muscle she could exercise from an early stage in her life.
"With a background in journalism, I also learned to observe and question narratives early in my career. I'd like to believe that my upbringing shaped my hunger, resilience, and belief in creating things that outlive me, whether that's a story world, a book, a platform, or a shift in how we imagine African stories."
Over the years, the creative in her late 30s has been part of international fellowships and labs in which she's championed feminine power and ownership.
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Now with Bad Influencer out on Netflix, she's already on to the next project. Her new project is Artemis Elixa®; she shares with Drum what it's all about.
"Artemis Elixa® is a pan-African sci-fi franchise about a brilliant engineer from the future who time-travels back to stop a rogue super-intelligence from taking over humanity. Each mission sends her across the continent, from Congo's mineral frontlines to Nairobi's tech corridors.
"With each mission, she confronts power, exploitation, and the ethics of progress. It's an African answer to Lara Croft meets The Terminator, with a touch of Black Panther, grounded in our real-world trajectory of technology, geopolitics, and African innovation. It's part graphic novel, part game, part cinematic world. The comic will be launching in 2026," she concludes the conversation with Drum.
