Tshego Molete Khanyile is an award-winning documentary and television Producer. After completing her Journalism degree at Rhodes University, she worked variously as Insert Producer for DSTV, production managed SABC productions and was assistant Script Supervisor on film sets such as District 9.
She was South African producer for international broadcasters such as premiere German broadcaster ARD TV, where she locally produced popular children’s documentary Sendung mit der Maus South African special, which went on to win the Erich-Kästner-Preis for exceptional German television. She has produced award winning documentaries such as Uprize! This travelled internationally, showed at prestigious festivals, was licensed by international broadcasters and nominated for South African Film and TV Awards (SAFTAs).
Tshego has served as Director for Training and Development for the Association for Transformation in Film and Television (ATFT), for 3 years. Through this she helped develop and mentor young black filmmakers and producers to enter the international film market space.
Tshego most recently ran the National Film and Video Foundation’s Female Filmmaker Programme. For the past four years she trained and developed first time female directors. Participants were intensively trained over a period of eight months, in writing and developing and then directing a short film. These shorts were produced through her production company Zinc Pictures under a series anthology banner and went on to premiere in competition at prestigious international festivals, including FESPACO and the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), where one of the films won prize the Best South African Short Film 2019. The films have also screened on the national public broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) under the anthology.
She is currently in development on feature film Problematik; Mhudi, an epic drama adaptation of Sol Plaatje’s novel of the same name; The Black Widow, an action thriller series based on the life of Durban’s notorious female drug kingpin, and Pretty’s Daughter, a coming-of-age drama series adapted for a streaming platform.