{"id":2048,"date":"2026-06-21T10:32:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/thuso-mbedu-tells-youth-day-audience-to-grow-from-small-starts\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T10:32:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T07:32:42","slug":"thuso-mbedu-tells-youth-day-audience-to-grow-from-small-starts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/thuso-mbedu-tells-youth-day-audience-to-grow-from-small-starts\/","title":{"rendered":"Thuso Mbedu Tells Youth Day Audience to Grow From \u201cSmall\u201d Starts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Thuso Mbedu is sending a Youth Day message straight from the soil\u2014returning to a backyard vegetable garden in Pietermaritzburg to make the point that the moments we\u2019re most embarrassed about today can become the foundation of our future.<\/p>\n<h2>Youth Day lesson: from \u201cunkempt\u201d patch to survival<\/h2>\n<p>Sharing her thoughts on social media, the <i>Underground Railroad<\/i> and <i>Woman King<\/i> star opened up about her childhood in an effort to encourage young people. She said that before her family moved to Pietermaritzburg, they lived in Ulundi, in a home surrounded by a yard filled with sugar cane, banana trees, peach trees, and guava trees.<\/p>\n<p>In that earlier life, she remembered feeling self-sufficient and proud. But after the family shifted to the \u201csuburbs\u201d of Pietermaritzburg, everything changed. Her grandmother, who was a pensioner, meant there were days when the household had little more than tea and bread\u2014and if tea wasn\u2019t available, umbhubhudla was the alternative.<\/p>\n<h3>A surprising order: dig up the backyard<\/h3>\n<p>One memory, in particular, stood out for her. Thuso recalled that her grandmother seemed to take back control of the situation by instructing everyone to dig up the backyard. Thuso and her siblings assumed the digging would lead to something fun\u2014like a swimming pool\u2014but the plan turned out to be practical: they were preparing land for a vegetable garden that would help the family get through lean times.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Thuso said she hated the idea at the time.<\/li>\n<li>She disliked feeling \u201cless cool\u201d than the neighbours.<\/li>\n<li>She resented the responsibility that came with it.<\/li>\n<li>She even felt embarrassed by a photo of herself in matric, taken in front of that \u201cunkempt\u201d garden while she wore her Honours blazer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Looking back: the garden that changed everything<\/h2>\n<p>Seventeen years later, Thuso revisited that same image and admitted that her priorities back then were \u201cas dodgy\u201d as the way she looked. Still, her feelings about the garden itself have completely flipped.<\/p>\n<p>She wrote that the \u201cembarrassing\u201d space was the reason her family could eat when grocery money was missing. She credited her grandmother\u2019s determination\u2014\u201cGogo\u2019s resistance\u201d\u2014with preserving the household. And she made the link to her career, saying that without the garden, there would be no Thuso at Wits, no Thuso in the industry, and no Thuso where she is today.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Her message to young South Africans: don\u2019t dismiss small beginnings, even if they seem \u201cembarrassing.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>She framed those early, unglamorous steps as something that can carry people into their future.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>From Pietermaritzburg upbringing to global stardom<\/h2>\n<p>Thuso\u2019s own \u201csmall beginnings\u201d have long been part of her story. She grew up in the Pelham area of Pietermaritzburg, raised by her grandmother after both parents passed away when she was young. She later studied at the University of the Witwatersrand, graduating with honours in 2013, and trained at New York\u2019s Stella Adler Studio of Acting.<\/p>\n<p>Her first major momentum came through South African productions, with roles in <i>Isibaya<\/i> and <i>Scandal!<\/i>, before she took on the lead in the Mzansi Magic teen drama <i>Is\u2019Thunzi<\/i>. That performance led to back-to-back International Emmy nominations in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n<h3>A career that expanded beyond home<\/h3>\n<p>From there, her career grew internationally. In 2021, she became the first South African actress to headline an American television series, starring as Cora in Amazon\u2019s <i>The Underground Railroad<\/i>. The role also brought recognition including an Independent Spirit Award, a Hollywood Critics Association Award, and a Gotham Award.<\/p>\n<p>She then made her feature film debut alongside Viola Davis in <i>The Woman King<\/i> (2022), portraying recruit-turned-warrior Nawi. Thuso said the part helped her push through fears, including performing her own stunts.<\/p>\n<h2>What\u2019s next for Thuso Mbedu<\/h2>\n<p>Despite the success, Thuso has remained open about staying grounded, and her profile has continued to climb. She is currently attached to Paramount\u2019s highly anticipated <i>Children of Blood and Bone<\/i>, where she leads the cast as Z\u00e9lie alongside Viola Davis, Cynthia Erivo, Damson Idris, Amandla Stenberg, Idris Elba, and Tosin Cole. The film is set to shoot in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>She also recently appeared in HBO\u2019s crime drama <i>Task<\/i> with Mark Ruffalo, and she has been featured in <i>Mufasa: The Lion King<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>For a country that watched a girl from a backyard vegetable patch in Pelham rise to worldwide recognition, Thuso\u2019s encouragement lands with special force: small, unglamorous starts aren\u2019t reasons to feel ashamed\u2014they\u2019re often exactly what puts someone on the path to where they\u2019re meant to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thuso Mbedu is sending a Youth Day message straight from the soil\u2014returning to a backyard vegetable garden in Pietermaritzburg to make the point that the moments we\u2019re most embarrassed about today can become the foundation of our future. Youth Day lesson: from \u201cunkempt\u201d patch to survival Sharing her thoughts on social media, the Underground Railroad [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"Thuso Mbedu Youth Day Message: Grow From Small Starts","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Thuso Mbedu\u2019s Youth Day message is all about growth: her garden \u201csmall starts\u201d prove today\u2019s awkward moments can become tomorrow\u2019s","mma_seo_breadcrumb_text":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_url":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_hide_ui":"","mma_seo_breadcrumb_labels":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-celebrities"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Thuso Mbedu 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Over four years, she helped evolve the platform from a simple blog into one of South Africa\u2019s leading independent entertainment news sites. Following ZAlebs\u2019 transition to Celebrity Worx in 2016, Zibuyile was promoted to Executive Editor, recognized for her sharp audience insight and ability to match editorial with branded content. Highlights of her time include a Bookmark Award nomination, judging TLC\u2019s Next Great Presenter, reporting from the MTV EMAs, and building partnerships with radio stations like YFM, Cliff Central, and Good Hope FM. Her editorial work also expanded to include fast-growing digital verticals\u2014such as lifestyle tech, online entertainment, and gambling-related content\u2014tailored to evolving reader interests and brand opportunities.","sameAs":["https:\/\/za.linkedin.com\/in\/zibuyile-dladla-9a26628a"],"url":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/author\/zibuyile-dladla\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zalebs.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}