This is just the beginning - Samba Mzera

‘Wow! That’s so cool! Did she survive?’

The first thing I said to my cousins as a very young girl when I saw Angelina Jolie being chased by villains. I didn’t know whether it was happening in real life and being recorded or an act – All I knew was that it was cool.

As I got older I realized that it was a fictional film, and the movie was Lara Croft: Tomb Raider- The Cradle of Life. This started my passion and life-long pursuit of understanding filmmaking, acting and becoming an aspiring actor myself.

In kindergarten, prep school and high school, nothing used to make me more excited than to finish 4pm classes and go for drama rehearsals. It was a bit of a bummer that filmmaking wasn’t taught in high school, but acting for theatre compensated for that. I started looking for filmmaking schools in Kenya, and settled to join Multimedia University to study film production. A couple of years later, I am still learning and dedicated to creating more content.

I love that the filmmaking industry in Kenya growing. It might make me anxious as newbie, as once in a while I ask myself whether I can solely depend on it as my main way of earning a living. The truth is, out of all the other occupations there are in this world, I have never thought of doing anything else. I have come to learn that passion and strong heartedness is what will separate you from others, and keep you in the picture. Kenyan content is becoming recognized by people all over the globe! The fact we have several movies on Netflix (and still more to come), not forgetting our show ‘What’s Good Africa’ airing on Revolt TV, makes it even better.