We are incredibly grateful that reality TV star and brand ambassador of everything, Somizi Mhlongo, used the third season of his reality show to introduce us to more people in his life, such as his make up artist, Lwazi Blose Cele (aka Diva Cadach) and his fiance Mohale...
... but the introduction we are most grateful for is the introduction to founder of the Feather Awards and the Thami Dish foundation, Thami Kotlolo aka Thami Dish.
The Mamelodi native actually got his nickname from a pseudo translation of his Sepedi surname. In sePedi, (se)Kotlolo directly translates to “dish.”
Although Thami is not new to the entertainment industry, he wasn't as widely known as he deserves to be. He actually began his career very young, having had roles in shows such as Backstage, YO-TV (as a presenter), films such as Mr Bones, and numerous adverts. He then went on to work at companies such as YFM and publications such as Sowetan.
About 10 years ago, a 23-year-old Thami, together with Joe "Baby Joe" Correia (Executive Producer of Selimathunzi) founded the Feather Awards with the aim of creating an event that celebrated people who inspire the LGBTI community. A few years after that, they felt the need to do more, so they started running community dialogues.
"We started off doing just one or two here in Gauteng, talking about the issues lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people face. But this year (2016), we decided to travel the rest of the country and had dialogues in the other eight provinces," explained Thami in a past interview with Mail & Guardian.
Two years ago, he also launched The Thami Dish Foundation to supplement the work he was doing through these dialogues. The primary focus of the foundation however is education and the funding thereof.
In addition to all that, he also own a PR company called Quad Republic that offers content services to the Gauteng Department of Health’s campaign, PASOP, and serves as the official publicity vehicle for the Feather Awards among other high profile projects.
According to a past interview with Grandeur Magazine, Thami cites former Chairman of MTV Networks International, Bill Roedy, as one of his inspirations. This is because Roedy made the transition from MTV chairman into a career in global advocacy.
Advocacy is very close to Thami's heart and he considers himself the President of ANC LGBTI League as he believes the LGBTI community has a place in both the ANC and overall national government.
And even with all that on his plate, he still manages to be a hilarious, effervescent reality star. Ugh! We stan.
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What to read next: Feather Awards: Chatting to celebs on the red carpet
Main image credit: instagram.com/thamidish/