Leleti Khumalo

Leleti Khumalo is a South African actress born on 30 March 1970 in KwaMashu township, north of Durban, South Africa. She first demonstrated an interest in performing at an early age, joining a youth backyard dance group called Amajika, which was mentored by Tu Nokwe.

In 1985, Khumalo auditioned for a musical by Mbongeni Ngema that would become Sarafina!, and Ngema wrote the lead character specifically for her. She performed the title role on stages in South Africa before bringing the production to Broadway, where it ran from 1988 to 1990. Her Broadway performance earned her a 1988 Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical. Prior to the Broadway run, in 1987, she received an NAACP Image Award for Best Stage Actress. Following the Broadway engagement, the production embarked on a worldwide tour. Khumalo also co-starred in Ngema's international musical Magic at 4 AM, which was dedicated to Muhammad Ali, and later appeared in another Ngema production, Mama, which toured Europe and Australia in 1996.

In 1992, Khumalo starred in Darrell James Roodt's film adaptation of Sarafina!, appearing alongside Whoopi Goldberg, Miriam Makeba, and John Kani. The film received worldwide distribution and was noted as the largest film production released on the African continent at that time. Based on the 1976 Soweto youth uprisings, it follows a young schoolgirl who inspires her peers to protest, particularly after her teacher, Mary Masombuka, played by Goldberg, is imprisoned and murdered. Khumalo received an Image Award nomination for her performance, alongside Angela Bassett, Whoopi Goldberg, and Janet Jackson. In 1993, she released her debut album, Leleti and Sarafina. She returned to the story in 1997, starring in Sarafina 2. The original film was re-released in South Africa on 16 June 2006 to mark the 30th anniversary of the Soweto youth uprisings.

Khumalo appeared in two notable films in 2004: Hotel Rwanda and Yesterday. Yesterday was nominated for a 2005 Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category, won the Best Film award at India's Pune International Film Festival, and screened at both the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals. In 2005, she joined the cast of the South African soap opera Generations, playing Busiswe Dlomo, a character who heads a publishing company called Ezweni based in Cape Town.

Khumalo joined the cast of the South African soap opera Uzalo in 2015, playing Zandile Mdletshe, known as MaNzuza. That same year, she was invited to Zanzibar Island, Tanzania, as a chief guest at the 18th anniversary celebrations of the Zanzibar Film Festival. From 2018 until the series concluded in 2023, she played Nokubonga Bhengu, known as MaZulu, on the e.tv soap opera Imbewu: The Seed. In July 2024, she joined the cast of the telenovela Muvhango as Dr. Ximba. Khumalo was previously married to Mbongeni Ngema; she is currently married to businessman Skhutazo Winston Khanyile, with whom she has twins named Ulwenzile and Yamukelani Khanyile.