Tino Ngorima, in the space of little more than a year, has made her Off-Broadway debut, wrapped her first lead film role, and started producing her own work, on top of finishing a demanding acting degree at one of the most competitive schools in the world.
The 24-year-old performer grew up in Kyalami, danced through school at an all girls institution in Johannesburg, and eventually made her way to London’s “Royal Academy of Dramatic Art” (RADA), spending a semester which she completed in 2024.
In 2025 she graduated with a “Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting” from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
Speaking to “The National”, she walked through how all of it came together, and where she wants to take it next. She revealed that the course at NYU split her time between craft and business.
“My minors were with the business school in producing and the business of entertainment media technology. So all of that together was fantastic,” she said.
By the time she graduated, she was already working both sides at once, helped along by a stint at an entertainment based startup and a return to dance, the discipline she picked up at school in Johannesburg.
Her stage credits followed shortly when she played Love in “Everybody”, at the Marilyn Monroe Theatre, and Casca in “Julius Caesar” at London’s GBS Theatre, which led to an industry script reading at the Bush Theatre.
After graduating, she made her Off-Broadway debut as Lady Capulet and Lady Montague in an adaptation of “Romeo & Juliet” that reportedly sold out its run.
“It’s like a thrill feeling to say that. It’s been a dream of mine,” she said. Ngorima has since taken a role in the Off-Broadway play “Fairies”, which she will reprise in 2027 due to demand.
Her most significant screen role to date is the lead in “Timeless Woman”, which she recently wrapped, playing an African American woman navigating an interracial relationship in contemporary America.
Preparing for a role so far from her own experience, she said, always starts on the page.
“I always like to read the script. You can do as much preparation as you want, but you need to really understand the different circumstances.
“I get that muscle ingrained from reading the script over and over, literally so many times, before you even start anything, just to really understand what world we are in, who these people are, how they talk to each other,” she explained.
Her experimental theatre training, rooted in Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski’s movement based work, shaped how she builds a character physically.
“I like to get the character in my body, find their spine and where do they live inside of Tino,” she said. Once on set, that preparation gives way to instinct. “When you come to set, you’ve got to let it go. You’ve got to be in the moment.”
She also went into detail about her interest in producing, sharing what motivated her to tap into that side of the art.
“I also wanted to understand the business side of things. Who gets to decide when I’m on stage? Who gets to decide what role I get? How do these people come to get that? Often I’ll be watching movies and I’m like, wow, I’m seeing a lot of marketing for that. How did that happen? Who are the people that decide all of these things?,” she explained.
At NYU, she said, she came to see producers as the ones holding that power, which pushed her toward the role directly. She is now producing and starring in “Lover Girl”, her first short film, currently in pre-production, about female friendship and the tangle of romantic relationships.
Ngorima is building it with a South African audience specifically in mind. “I know South Africans will eat it up. We would love to see a nice story about female friendships, because we all have that. That’s our community, that’s our vibe,” she said.
She is also producing “Good Mothers”, a new play being workshopped, staged as a reading at The Tank, an Off-Broadway venue, with a premiere eventually planned for the Edinburgh International Festival in Scotland.
Written by writers she met through NYU, the play tackles motherhood and postpartum depression as a comedy. The initial staged reading was simply to test whether it landed.
“Everyone was laughing the whole time. It’s such a Shakespearean thing to do, bringing real topics to an audience in a way that’s palatable and digestible,” Ngorima said.
She shared that the team gathered feedback through QR codes placed around the venue, which she said is now shaping the rewrite.
“We’re really building it from scratch with a full length production planned for next year if that rewrite lands.”
Her parents, she said, encouraged a love of academics alongside pop culture, including a diet of adult comedies she credits with sharpening her comic instincts, and she singles out a South African teacher who cast her in a lead school production as the moment acting became a real ambition.
She’s also interned with “Known Associates Entertainment”, the South African production company behind work on “The Woman King” and several current local TV series, an office she describes as woman led.
With South Africa being home to some of the best talent in the world, Ngorima shared that she is open to working with everyone.
“I feel like I’m at the place where I work with anybody I want to work with, everybody. I feel like I could learn something from every single person in South Africa, how it works, how things run, and just being a fly on the wall for anyone who will let me have their time. I always like to say more, say less. I’ll be there.”
nomathamsanqa.sithathu@nationalmg.co.za