Tshiamo Modisane: A Game-Changer Living Life on Her Own Terms
In a media landscape dominated by a pervasive sort of heteronormativity, it is very difficult not to notice when a game changer walks into the room.
Words by Tutu Zondo
We met on a warm Friday afternoon, on the set of her starring cover shoot of this Month's issue. By the brisk movement of her red tresses, cut into a chic wavy bob, I could instantly tell her apart from the throng of other people in the room. A gender defying phenom, Tshiamo Kgositsile Modisane has been raising eyebrows since her formative years growing up in Daveyton; so comfortable she has always been in her own skin.
She has a presence about her, a fact I’m sure is not lost on her, having courageously and intentionally chosen to live her life on her own terms in the most visible of ways as an actress, model and media entrepreneur. When you meet and experience this presence in person, you understand why she was chosen as the first non-binary ambassador for LUX.
She credits Lindani Nanandwa (alias: Lindani Styles) as her gateway into the world of fashion and styling, having interned for him for some time. “I wanted to dress stars,” she says, citing the Oscars red-carpet as the benchmark of her glamour aspirations and working with Lindani Styles was her first foray.
It wasn’t too long before she was on sets and working in the styling departments of various publications. Move Magazine was a particularly important watershed moment in her career. “I remember thinking ‘I’m really doing this!’” she recalls, as she vividly details the experience of working on her first big cover — a cover that had her dress and work with some of the biggest names in the South African entertainment industry. Fashion has been a comfort and safe space; a comfort she has turned not only into an expression of her truest self but into a burgeoning and fruitful career. Even when she walks onto set, you can see her fashion mind working; she makes suggestions, adjustments — the small changes that immediately elevate her look.
I asked if it was difficult as an actor to balance her craft and characters with her own gender identity, having recently debuted on the SABC 1 show ‘African Dreams’ where she plays a transitioning gender-queer character, Thabang Sithole. “I needed to see Thabang”, she gestures thoughtfully as she explains that it was important for her to represent the full spectrum of Thabang’s journey from start to finish and that she didn’t want to cheat the character by jumping to the end. Seeing Thabang in all their aspects, from their assigned gender all the way through to their rebirth was what was needed of the character and that’s exactly what she did.
“I want to play a thug!” She wants to play men, women, non-binary people; whomever she feels aligns with the intentionality of her approach to her work because she inherently sees her presence in all the spaces she occupies as a form of activism. “My protest is different. You want to see me at the line but you’ll see me at the table I was told I’m not allowed to be at”
To conclude our conversation, though she is only but at the beginning of her career, it would have been remiss of me not to ask this clear-eyed master of her own destiny how she’d liked to be remembered. “Like I lived my life to the fullest,” she replies as I ask her what she has her sights on next. “I can’t tell you that; I’m giving you everything next! Watch this space, you’ll want to know me!”