Who Is Buhle Samuels? Age, Biography, Tv Roles, and Everything Fans Ask
Samuels did not follow the conventional route through dramatic arts academies. In early 2014, casting directors for Muvhango were searching for an actress to play a minor supporting character. Instead, during auditions, series creator Duma Ndlovu saw an unpolished intensity in Samuels that prompted production to rewrite scripts entirely. They created the character of Matshidiso Mofokeng specifically to utilize her screen presence.
Matshidiso was merciless, calculating, and stylish. Over four uninterrupted seasons, Samuels turned the character into one of the most polarizing figures on South African primetime television. Her performance earned her a nomination for Best Newcomer at the 2015 Royalty Soapie Awards. Audiences tuned in nightly by the millions; SABC2 ratings routinely showed peak viewership during storylines driven by Matshidiso's corporate espionage and romantic betrayals.
She departed the series in 2018 to avoid artistic typecasting, though she returned for a brief, lucrative guest arc in 2020. Her subsequent leap to subscription video-on-demand platforms cemented her industry standing. Casting her as Zandile in the Ferguson Films production Kings of Jo'burg introduced her to an international Netflix audience across 190 countries, proving her commercial viability outside the domestic telenovela ecosystem.