Mbongeni Ngema was an award winning South African playwright, lyricist, composer, director, choreographer, and theatre producer best known for for co-writing the 1981 play Woza Albert! and co-writing the 1988 multi-award-winning musical Sarafina!. Ngema's theatrical career began when he joined Gibson Kente's theatre company as a singer and trainee actor. He acted in local productions in the 1970s, before becoming a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He later founded his own theatre compan... moreMbongeni Ngema was an award winning South African playwright, lyricist, composer, director, choreographer, and theatre producer best known for for co-writing the 1981 play Woza Albert! and co-writing the 1988 multi-award-winning musical Sarafina!. Ngema's theatrical career began when he joined Gibson Kente's theatre company as a singer and trainee actor. He acted in local productions in the 1970s, before becoming a playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He later founded his own theatre company, Committed Artists, where he trained young men who had no experience in acting. Ngema's plays often reflected the spirit of black South Africans under apartheid. He depicted struggles of the apartheid era such as endemic poverty, repression and political marginalization, which were the core themes of Ngema’s stage productions. He portrayed these themes through the use of dark humor, music, dance and dignity. He was also one of the vocal arrangers for the Disney film The Lion King (1994), for which he earned a multi-platinum award for selling over 6 million copies. Some of his other work include Umoja: The African Musical, Mandela: The Musical, Mama and Asinamali. Throughout his career Ngema won numerous awards such as Grammy Award for The Lion King's vocal arangement. He was Inducted in the New York Walk of Fame in 1998.
