There isn’t a Mzansi actress that has made the motherland as proud as Thuso Mbedu has, and now we join her once again in celebrating her biggest win yet.
Her biggest role since she became a Hollywood fixture, The Underground Railroad, has truly changed her life in magnificent ways. Not only does she frequently rub shoulders with Hollywood royalty now, but it also exposed her to the win she has just bagged.
Thuso won the award for the Best Female Performance In A New Scripted Series, at the 37th Film Independent Spirit Awards. The award ceremony was held in Santa Monica, California yesterday, 6th March.
She took to Instagram to share pictures and videos of her winning the award. In the video where she goes up on stage to receive the award, you can clearly tell that she did not expect to win, which makes the moment that much more exciting.
“Oh my God. Oh snap. They told me a number of times to prepare something, and I really didn’t,” she said at the start of her speech, as though still not quite sure it wasn’t all a dream. She went on to thank everyone who was involved in the making of the show, as well as all those who supported her throughout the series and so far, including her sister and the show’s executive producer, Barry Jenkins.
For the award, she went up against Jasmine Cephas Jones of Blindspotting, Anjana Vasan of We Are Lady Parts, Deborah Ayorinde of THEM: Covenant, and Jana Schmieding of Rutherford Falls.
As she went online with the news, the congratulations have been pouring in ever since. Celebrities and fans alike are in awe of her and her talent, and they are telling her as much.
“😭🙌❤️ So great!” wrote actor and comedian Tyson Ngubeni, while actress and TV personality Innocent Sadiki wrote “You are legendary ❤️. African Queen we thank you and congratulate you. Keep up the phenomenal work. Love the accent…just saying 😍. Much love ❤️ and respect.”
The young talent has had such an illustrious career, which is all the way up, and we love to see that she is not on this beautiful journey alone. Her best friend Makgotso Monyemorathoe, recently also landed a huge role in a film that Thuso will be starring in.
While it was a beautiful moment for the besties, it brought Thuso a lot of scrutiny as many suspected that she had gotten Makgotso the role. But she denied these accusations strongly, and emphasised that Makgotso did it all because she is immensely talented.