Kazi Msomi – The Adventurous Storyteller.

I was just 11 years old when my father took me to the cinemas for the first time. Prior to that, movies to me were the pictures I saw on TV at home. So, we’re at the mall with my father and he says, “let’s go watch a movie.” My 11-year-old mind is thinking he means let’s go home and watch a movie. But my father surprises me by taking me to this large lobby with gigantic posters plastered around the walls. I felt like I was in a movie myself as I was in awe of the big space I was standing in the center of. My father proceeds to purchase a large tub of popcorn and cool drinks, and then ushers me into this dark room. And in this dark room, what I thought was the biggest TV screen I have ever seen lights up. We take our seats and the first movie I ever watched – Akeelah and the Bee (2006) – starts playing. I loved the movie, and I loved the experience. And after that day, I begged my father to take me to the cinemas every time during the school holidays. This was the beginning of my love for storytelling.

I am a screenwriter and I have been passionate about telling stories since I was a teenager. As going to the cinemas became a tradition for me and my family, I began to pay attention to the opening and closing credits and I was intrigued by the writer’s credit. I spent my high school years in the library and between reading a plethora of romance novels, I did some research on the film industry and its various professions. I was captivated by the writer is the creative brains behind the story and responsible for writing the manuscript used to produce a film. And so, I decided I wanted to be a screenwriter “when I grow up.” And upon my decision, I started getting many ideas for stories that I wanted to tell. I studied film and television production in college and majored in screenwriting. And over the years, I have worked hard to hone my writing skills as I strive to become the best writer I can be.

My writing journey has been interlaced with failures, rejections, and some worthy achievements. It has been quite an adventure. But then again, my entire life has been adventurous. I spent most of my childhood living like an only child and my time as a teenager as an outcast. I had to entertain myself, and to me that meant living in my imagination. From having eccentric imaginary friends to daydreaming for hours on end, these experiences have molded me into becoming a writer who revels in telling grand stories. I am an isiZulu South African woman and I write fantasy, adventure, and science fiction stories helmed by characters who are people of color and more so African women. My stories are inspired by personal experiences and observations of the society I grew up in, which adds a dramatic layer to my writing. I want girls and young women in South Africa and the greater African continent to see themselves as adventurous through the characters of my stories, and to inspire them to be brave and confident and achieve their ambitions.

Today, I am on a steady incline towards achieving my own ambitions. I currently work for a South African TV soap opera which has given me much-needed local industry writing experience. I also write original short and micro-budget film stories as preparation for writing bigger feature films. I can offer my adventurous screenwriting skills to an employer seeking to invest in imaginative stories from South Africa. And I also seek to collaborate with producers and production companies alike to produce the scripts I have written for an international audience.