The No.1 School for
the Creative Economy

David is an actor best known for his starring role as Sol Grootboom on the SABC 1 television drama series Soul City (1997-2010) and Soul Buddyz, from 2000-2003. He also played the recurring character of Sew Sew Tukarrs in 10 episodes of the science fiction series Charlie Jade in 2005.

Other television series he has appeared in include Sterk Skemer, Rhodes, Colossus of Africa (for BBC One), Behind the Badge, Isidingo, Justice For All (seasons 1 and 3), It Rained Last Night and Thetha Msawawa. He was also a guest on 7de Laan in 2009, played Dr Balthazar in Rhythm City in 2010 and guest starred on 90 Plein Street in 2011.

His feature film credits include Red Dust (2004), Coup! directed by Simon-Cellan Jones, King Kong in 2005,  10,000 B.C. directed by Roland Emmerich (2008), and notably his role of Mr. Isaacs in Disgrace, in which he played opposite John Malkovich. In 2009, David received a SAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Feature Film in 2009, for his portrayal of Jacob in the film The World Unseen, based on the novel by Shamim Sarif.

Awards in theatre and musical theatre include five prestigious Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards, four for Shakespearean roles in Twelfth Night, The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor and Two Gentlemen of Verona.  He has also received two Vita Awards - one for his role as Frank in Frank ‘n Stein, and the other for his role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.  Other awards include a Dalro Award for Riff Raff as well as awards for his performances in The Ride Across Lake Constance, Loot and the musical adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd.

In 2010, David appeared in the National Arts Festival co-production of Richard III, which also played at the Artscape and Market Theatres in 2011.  This was followed by the sell-out season of the Theatre On The Square production of The Pirates Of Penzance, which earned David the Naledi Award for Best Comedy performance and for Most Cutting Edge production.  He also starred in the world premiere of Ariel Dorman’s Delirium at the Market Theatre in 2012.

Dr Janet van Eeden has written more feature-length screenplays than she can count, as well as numerous short films, written and produced six stage plays (and directed two) and taken each to the Grahamstown Arts Festival, with funding from the National Arts Council. She writes and script-edits many feature films for the KZN Film Commission, amongst others. She is an educator, screenwriter, playwright, producer, evaluator as well as the Dean of AFDA Durban. Her significant achievements and awards include:

A full-length feature film Janet wrote, White Lion, was released internationally in cinemas in February 2010. The film won four SAFTA Awards in its release year. In 2011, Janet was awarded the Vodacom Journalist of the Year Award as a Columnist for The Sunday Independent.  In 2013, Janet wrote and produced the short film A Shot at the Big Time, directed by Stephen de Villiers, which premiered at the Durban International Film Festival in July 2013. In May 2014, her short film was selected for the Cannes Short Film Corner, Metrage and was screened there with Janet in attendance. In 2015, the Writers’ Guild of South Africa nominated three of her stage plays for the Award of Outstanding Achievement in Produced Stage Plays. Janet won the 2015 WGSA Muse Award for Produced Stage Plays for A Matter of Time.

Janet obtained her Masters in English (Cum Laude) from UKZN and her thesis was entitled Putting the Pen into their own Hands.  Janet furthered her academic excellence by completing a Doctorate of Philosophy in English Studies and graduated from UKZN in 2017. Her PhD thesis was entitled Beyond the Biopic: An Exploration into the Nature of Biography through the Medium of Film.

Janet is a script evaluator for the KZN Film Commission and the Durban Film Office and was an evaluator for the recent PESP (Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme) projects and has been the Overall Chairperson of the annual Simon Sabela Awards every year since 2018. Janet was the overall Chairperson of the SAFTA Awards from 2020 until 2022.  Janet furthermore served as the Supervising Juror for the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) in July 2019, and was a judge for the 2020 South African contenders for the International Oscar Awards.  

Janet is also a published author of two Scriptwriting books, Cut to the Chase and What the Fractal? with Modjaji Publications under the Hands On label.

Mark has worked in various capacities in the South African film industry since the nineteen-eighties. As a production designer, he has worked on domestic productions for SABC and MWEB, as well as for foreign television productions BBC, Channel4, and Canal+.  He has also been involved in the production design of  numerous local and international feature films such as Krakatoa, Red Dust, and Mandela’s Gun. He has twice received the MNET-VITA Award for production design.

As a director, two of his early drama films Astor Mansions and Half-an-Hour were award-winners on the Weekly Mail Film Festival. His relocation to the Karoo in the mid-nineties prompted his pursuit of documentary film as a medium for social and environmental change.

Amidst these occupations, Mark has also practiced consistently as a conceptual artist. He has a personal research interest in the expanding potential for hybrid forms of storytelling that embrace multiple media platforms. Solo and collaborative projects emerging from this practice have been exhibited locally and abroad.

Mark spearheads the vision of the AFDA campus in Gqeberha – that of establishing itself as the cornerstone of a burgeoning industry in the Eastern Cape.

Diaan Lawrenson may be better known in South African households as ‘Paula’, for her role in the TV soapie 7de Laan, but she has also very successfully mined her multiple skillset in the entertainment industry, working across all genres as an actor, producer, director and scriptwriter on a host of television shows, short films, feature films, theatre productions and music videos. Diaan started lecturing at AFDA in 2016 and was appointed as Dean of the Cape Town campus in early 2019. She is also the co-founder of the award-winning production company, Jester Productions.

Diaan has played the lead role of Ingrid in the film Raaiselkind, for which she was nominated at the SAFTA’s in 2019.  She acted in the box-office hit Susters, directed by fellow AFDA alumnus Corne van Rooyen, portrayed the role of Megan in the film Table Manners and starred in the multi-award winning film Sink, directed by AFDA alumnus Brett Michael Innes.

Over the last 12 years her production company, Jester Productions, has been responsible for productions in theatre, corporate and industrial theatre, DVD production, film and television. Jester Productions has won various awards, including SAFTAS, ATKV Veertjie, YOU Spectacular, Tempo, Fleur du Cap and Naledi Awards.

As the Dean of the AFDA Cape Town campus, Diaan hopes to share her experiences as an actor, producer, director and scriptwriter with our future industry leaders. “When I started lecturing at AFDA Cape Town campus I discovered another passion - I realized that I am a student at heart, that I adore being a mentor and so bridging young, dedicated practitioners into the industry.” says Diaan.