The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
ZIMBABWEAN actress Chi Mhende continues to impress on the small screen in Mzansi, after snagging a role on White Lies, an M-Net series, which features former Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer in the lead role.
The drama series, which is co-production between Quizzical Pictures and Fremantle, is set in Cape Town.
Mhende’s career has grown in leaps and bounds south of the Limpopo, where she first caught the eye on SABC1’s Generations: The Legacy, playing Wandile Radebe, a transgender woman.
Since then, Mhende has continued to scale new heights, appearing on high profile theatre productions while making an appearance on Queen Sono, Netflix’s debut production in Africa.
She also clinched a directorial role on Generations, the show that gave her the much-needed big break in Mzansi television.
Chi Mhende in “White Lies”
In the series, in which Mhende plays a maid to one of the main protagonists, journalist Edie Hansen (Dormer) gets caught up in the Cape’s ugly underworld after her brother is murdered in the wealthy neighbourhood of Bishopscourt in Cape Town’s southern suburbs.
Dragged back into her tumultuous childhood, Edie’s investigation soon puts her at loggerheads with veteran detective Forty Bell (Brendon Daniels) and forces her to grapple with the crumbling local police force, a corrupt political system, and the secretive world of extreme wealth.
“There’s huge anticipation for White Lies — and viewers’ patience will be rewarded from the first seconds of the first episode,” said Waldimar Pelser, Channel Director: Premium Channels before the series’ première on M-Net recently.
“Between a world-class local and international cast, searing storytelling, best-in-class production, and the backdrop of the best of the most beautiful city in the world, White Lies has all the ingredients for global success”.
White Lies is produced by Harriet Gavshon and Nimrod Geva for Quizzical Pictures, with Dormer and screenplay writer Darel Bristow-Bovey also serving as executive producers. The series’s lead director is The Wound’s John Trengove, alongside Thati Pele (Lerato), Catharine Cooke (Reyka), and Christiaan Olwagen (Poppie Nongena, Kanarie). The series is created by Sean Steinberg with UK casting by Matt Western.
