Like most actors and actresses today, Mapaseka 'Pasi' Koetle didn’t have it easy venturing into the acting world but had to give up her daytime job to commit to her dream of becoming an actress.

With most production houses being based in Johannesburg, Pasi traveled all the way from Bloemfontein to kick-start her career in the city of dreams, speaking to Lasizwe in a recent interview Pasi revealed that she struggled to get jobs after graduating.

“My journey wasn’t easy...I studied acting and also coming to Joburg wasn’t easy because my mom didn’t have money to bring me this side to study, but you know what? I told myself: ‘I’m not gonna give up’, I came to study this side, I graduated, and then I struggled to get jobs...I was a promo girl, at the malls and the clubs, I was working at the call center, I was a receptionist at some construction company...the last job that I had was at Markhams in Sandton City, I started as a packer then I went into being a cashier..."

Pasi went on to add that after quitting her job and struggling to get through to auditions, keeping her hair natural helped her land her first advertisement gig. 

“...I thought to myself, the only way for me to get to do what I love, is for me to quit and go for auditions, and that's what I did and I didn’t get auditions and then, my agent sent me to an audition for some ad [advertisement], so I told myself: ‘Let me try something different, let me cut my hair and go to auditions with my natural hair and I did that and I got my ad and then I kept on getting adverts, after adverts.’ 

Pasi also shared how she got her role as Dintle on Scandal.

“...and then Scandal, I went to go audition for Gontse (there’s a character called Gontse)...and I didn’t get it, and I said: ‘You know what? it’s fine’ cause a week before I went to go audition for a character I got a callback but I didn’t get the part and I was so mad that I even stopped watching Rhythm City. Two weeks after they called me, and I’m thinking I’m going back to audition for Gontse, not knowing that it’s a new audition all together...immediately when I left Sasani [studios] I get a call...they tell me I got the part...they didn’t even have a name for that character, they were like, this is Dintle, there's no other.”

Today the actress not only thrives as an actress but also thrives in business as she runs a cafe with her husband in Sandton.

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Main image credit: instagram.com/@pasi_koetle