Zakes Mokae

Infobox actor


caption = Mokae with Donald Sutherland in the film "A Dry White Season"
birthdate = Birth date and age|1935|8|5|mf=y
birthplace = Johannesburg, South Africa
tonyawards = Best Featured Actor in a Play
1982 "Master Harold...and the Boys"

Zakes Zulu Mokae (born August 5, 1935) is a South African-born American actor.

Mokae was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, moved to Great Britain in 1961, and to the United States in 1969. [cite web | author= | title=Zakes Mokae Biography | url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/8/Zakes-Mokae.html | work=filmreference | date=2008 | accessdate=2008-05-19] He turned to acting at the same time as playwright Athol Fugard was emerging. The two worked together on Fugard's first international success "The Blood Knot" from 1961, a two-hander set in South Africa about brothers with the same mother but different fathers so Zach (played by Mokae) is dark skinned and Morris (played by Fugard) is fair skinned. Later Mokae worked with Fugard on another major international success "Master Harold... and the Boys", for which Mokae won the 1982 Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Play. The play was filmed for television in 1985 with Mokae and "Matthew Broderick". In 1993 Mokae won a second Tony Award for Featured Actor in a Play for "The Song of Jacob Zulu" by "Tug Yourgrau".

His major films are split between anti-apartheid films such as "A Dry White Season", "Cry Freedom" and "A World of Strangers", and cult horror films such as "The Serpent and the Rainbow" and "Dust Devil". He also appears in character roles in many films. On television, he has been a guest actor in many series such as "The West Wing", "Starsky and Hutch", "Danger Man", "The X-Files", "Oz", "Monk" and "Knight Rider".

In recent years, Mokae has been working as a theatre director for American companies including the Nevada Shakespeare Company.

References

External links

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* [http://www.iainfisher.com/mokae.html Zakes Mokae site]