Moopi Mothibeli, born 29 March 1985, is a 36 years old South African actor best known for portraying a power hungry and a notorious psychopath, Smanga on Generations: The Legacy. His acting skills on our screens attracts viewers to desire to know more about him in real life.
Biography Profile
Full name: Moopi Mothibeli
Gender: Female
Date of birth: 29 March 1985
Age: 36 years old
Place of birth: Sebokeng, Gauteng
Nationality: South African
Occupation: Actor
Known for: Generations: The Legacy
Languages: Afrikaans, English, Sesotho, IsiZulu
Height: 1.72m (172cm)
Early life of Moopi Mothibeli
Moopi Mothibeli was born on 29 March 1985 in Sebokeng, Gauteng Province in South Africa. He was raised in Sebokeng, a township in southern Gauteng. He is a middle child and was raised by both his parents, George and Thandi Mathibeli, now both retired.
His mom is a self-employed real-estate agent while his dad is a former teacher.
According to Mothibeli, his family didn’t have much, but the stability created by having two parents under the same roof made things a lot easier for him and his two siblings.
Growing up, Moopi’s mother influenced him to become either a doctor or lawyer. The fields which his parents believed meant money or a kind of upliftment. But he was curious about storytelling and the arts after working on an assignment on Romeo and Juliet. He knew then he wanted to be an actor. His parents were very supportive after telling them about his dream career.
Education of Moopi Mothibeli
Moopi obtained his education from Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). He graduated from TUT with Theatre Degree in Drama. He followed this up with a Master of Fine Arts degree from The Ohio State University.
Career life of Moopi Mothibeli
- Image of Moopi on portraying characters on Theatre Plays!
Moopi started in theatres and was a professional mime artist. He even worked as a retail sales clerk before coming to prominence. In theatre, Moopi portrayed roles in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Yerma (In Africa), Here comes a chopper and the lead in The Crucible, amongst others.
While studying at Columbus Ohio in USA, Moopi played in theatre plays such as This Above All, THE Camouflage Project and a self-devised one-man show called Grey-I-Land. Ordinal 5 would go on to be performed at the Tate Modern in the UK. He also starred in the title role of Othello, a production in association with The Royal Shake Speare Company. [¹]
Television drama career
Moopi television drama career kick started when he joined Generations: The Legacy in 2014. This was after Generations went through a revamp following the firing of 16 main actors over salary disputes. After that the soapie was remodeled and renamed as Generations: The Legacy.
His character of Smanga Moroka on Generations: The Legacy has gone through different levels of transformation. Smanga was once a victim of abuse and now he is a businessman. Viewers of Generations: the Legacy has come to know him as a notorious psychopath who will step over anyone in his quest for power.
In 2021, Moopi starred as Jabu in drama called Hotel On Koppies alongside Zethu Dlomo and Cameron Scott. The drama was about two young South African artists who got stuck at a critical point in their lives as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. [²]
Personal life of Moopi Mothibeli
Mothibeli is a shy guy in real life and he loves his family. He’s not big on social media and doesn’ attend a lot of media functions. He spends what little downtime he has with family and friends and it’s something he values.
The star is still friends with his childhood friends. “My friends still view me as the same reserved guy they’ve known all these years,” he said. He is currently single but believes in love and he says, “What’s life without the greatest force of our existence?”
His role models and the people he looked up to are the very people he has called colleagues today. This includes Vusi Kunene, Ronnie Nyakale and the late Ntate Joe Mafela.
Moopi Mothibeli Networth
Moopi has a networth of $ 300 000.00 according to Savannah News. And he earns about R36 000 to R42 000 per month from Generations the Legacy. [³]
