Lasizwe Dambuza is celebrating a major career milestone after being named YouTube Creator of the Year at the fourth annual SA Content Creator Awards, held in Sandton on Saturday.
The entertainer said the achievement felt especially meaningful as it arrived a decade into his career. “Ten years later was all I could think about,” he said, reflecting on 10 years spent creating, experimenting, evolving and consistently putting himself out there. Hearing his name announced and stepping onto the stage was an emotional moment, he explained, adding that he is still reliving it and allowing himself to feel proud.
Lasizwe said his career has played out in the public eye, with audiences watching him move through different stages of his life while he was still discovering himself. Although the journey has brought both standout highs and challenging lessons, he said he is thankful that he never stopped moving forward.
His Maison De TM look also made an impression at the ceremony. From the purple carpet through to the stage, Lasizwe drew attention in a bold, skin-baring ensemble that sparked plenty of conversation.
He said the fashion choice was intended to represent the meeting point between his masculine and feminine energy. Lasizwe explained that he has always embraced being openly expressive with his femininity, a part of his identity that he deeply values.
After developing a love for the gym, however, he began to notice changes in his body and found himself embracing his masculinity more fully as well. The skirt represented his feminine expression, while the top highlighted his physique and brought in a masculine edge. For him, the outfit reflected his current relationship with himself: there is space for both sides.
Thinking back to the early period of his career, when his short phone-recorded skits regularly went viral, Lasizwe said he always believed he could achieve significant success in entertainment.
He had ambitious goals, even if he was unsure exactly how they would come together. At the time, he was simply filming clips, uploading them and hoping viewers would find them entertaining. Now, he is grateful that he began with the resources he had instead of waiting for better equipment or the perfect circumstances. His phone, he said, was enough to launch the journey.
Lasizwe has remained a fixture on trending lists this year through his YouTube series Awkward Dates, though he said producing the show comes with its own pressures.
Beyond developing an idea, he must consider budgets, guest bookings, editing and leading the wider team, while still arriving on camera with the right energy. He said he has been learning how to articulate his creative vision more effectively and to place greater trust in his team to handle their roles. An idea may be clear in his own mind, he noted, but the entire team needs to understand the shared goal.
Even after 10 years in the business, Lasizwe said he still sees himself as a work in progress.
He said he has many more concepts he wants to pursue, along with new aspects of himself that he hopes to reveal. Making people laugh remains one of his greatest joys, particularly when people tell him that his content helped them through a hard time.
Because he can become excited and want to take on everything at once, Lasizwe said he has had to be more deliberate about resting. He wants time to simply live, talk to people, work out, laugh and have experiences without immediately turning them into content. Those moments, he said, give him fresh material and perspective when he returns to work. He also hopes to show more dimensions of himself without feeling that he must always be performing.
The YouTube Creator of the Year trophy has already found a home in his office alongside his silver and gold YouTube plaques. Lasizwe and his team are now preparing the next chapter of Awkward Dates, while also developing further projects through his production company, TD Media.
He said he is eager to keep expanding, experimenting and introducing audiences to parts of Lasizwe they have not yet seen. Awards, he said, give him further confidence in his own ideas. While he is proud of Awkward Dates and wants to continue building the show, he is also interested in additional formats, hosting roles and projects that reveal different sides of his personality.
Through TD Media, Lasizwe hopes to create a business that delivers strong work consistently and connects with viewers throughout Africa and beyond. For the creator, there is still plenty left to make.
