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You must know how I adore Marc Jacobs. A designer who pours his passion into a glorious bookshop in Paris and New York in addition to his brand speaks to my heart.
He delights me, so I am particularly pleased that an impossibly bright lemon yellow Marc’s by Marc Jacobs café has opened as part of the new Maison Deux luxury concept store in Hyde Park Corner. It has big yellow velvet versions of New York diner banquettes and a joyous brunch available all day.
Obviously a very good place to meet the equally bright and charming Lady Nam, aka Nambitha Ben-Mazwi, who is celebrating her 10th year in the entertainment industry.
Lady Nam isn’t driven by fame as much as purpose. “I’m a small-town girl with big-city dreams,” she says. “But I’m still very much grounded by being a PE girl.”
Born and raised in Gqeberha, she attended Collegiate Girls’ High School, and sitting still was never really an option.
“I grew up believing you should try everything. I played first-team hockey, I was in the choir, I did speech and drama, I represented the Eastern Cape in choral music, I was in the Xhosa Society, I was on the social committee… I was just busy all the time. I was curious about everything, and I think that curiosity has stayed with me my whole life.”
Music took her around Europe before she was a teenager. Touring with the Eastern Cape Children’s Choir introduced her to Holland, France, Belgium and Germany, opening her eyes to a world far beyond the Eastern Cape.
“It made me realise there was this enormous world waiting.”
But when university came, she chose business over drama.
“I studied business science at UCT, majoring in finance and marketing. In my family acting was always seen as something you loved — not necessarily something you built your life around.”
One evening I was sitting alone in the office and I suddenly asked myself, ‘Are you actually happy?’
Much of that thinking came from her late uncle, the legendary Tony Award-winning actor Winston Ntshona.
“He’d achieved the highest honour imaginable in theatre. But I also saw how difficult it still was to create generational wealth through the arts. That stayed with me.”
She graduated with honours, joined global software company Meltwater and threw herself into corporate life. For about a year.
“One evening I was sitting alone in the office and I suddenly asked myself, ‘Are you actually happy?’”
Around the same time, one of her closest friends called to say she was resigning to pursue design in Florence. “She ended the conversation by saying, ‘I know where your heart is. Go for it.’ She planted the seed.”
That seed eventually became a plane ticket to New York. “I networked my way through New York one conversation at a time. Someone introduced me to someone, who introduced me to someone else. Complete strangers took me under their wing. It restored my faith in people. More importantly, it restored my faith in myself. That’s where I made a promise that I’ve never broken: no matter what happened in my career, I would stay true to who I am.”
She landed an appearance discussing Nelson Mandela’s final illness on American television, worked at The Stand comedy club and immersed herself in the city she’d dreamed about for years.
“It was the first time I could simply listen to myself without everyone else’s expectations.”
When she returned to South Africa she joined Heart FM in Cape Town, heading its digital division while quietly auditioning whenever she could.
“I’d go off to castings and come back to the office.” The acting jobs began arriving. A cameo became another audition. Then another role. She packed her little Mazda, drove to Johannesburg with a six-month strategy already mapped out, and never looked back.
Ten years later, the strategy has paid off. “Sometimes I only realise the significance of something months later. Sitting in Laurence Fishburne’s home while he cooked for me was surreal. Being chosen by Beyoncé for Black Is King was extraordinary.
“But every one of those moments simply reminded me that the impossible sometimes becomes possible if you keep showing up.”
Her most recent pinch-me moment was becoming the first non-European lead in the iconic Swiss-German crime franchise Tatort. The production searched across Europe before finally finding her in South Africa. She had just weeks to learn Swiss German, often recording her driver and makeup artists pronouncing lines so she could practise between scenes.
The film attracted record audiences and opened doors across Europe. “I didn’t realise how significant it was until I got there.”
Despite an international career, what keeps her grounded isn’t Hollywood. It’s home.
She speaks with enormous pride about her grandmother, one of South Africa’s pioneering black nurses.
“My grandmother treated my dark skin like it was a superpower. She knew I was being teased at school, but she’d look at me and say, ‘Do they know what they’ve got in front of them?’ She completely changed the way I saw myself. She taught me never to shrink, never to apologise for who I am, and I carry her with me every time I walk onto a set.”
Sunday Times
