“What’s good, what it do, what’s up?”
This line may not ring a bell to most people but for the 2k gang who are also local YouTube die-hards, only one name comes to mind and that name is Neo Rapetsoa.
From her high school days, Neo has been on small screens, creating sit-down content where she’s either playing games with her friends and family members, pulling a prank on someone or just documenting her life.
It’s been about seven years since she first pressed the record button and uploaded her first video.
Before and throughout her YouTube career though, she had her eyes on being an actress, which culminated in 2022.
The 22-year-old tells Drum that she used YouTube as an outlet for her extrovert self.
“I did YouTube for fun, really and truly. It was really just a fun experiment for me, like my own personal video diary which still happens to do really well, and people enjoyed the [video] diary version of my life. I'm very grateful for that journey because I guess it opened a lot of doors for me and helped me build a brand of my own."
Coming from a family that’s fairly renowned in the arts industry, Neo found herself gravitating towards acting at a young age.
At the age of 21, she finally got a role on the Ferguson Films’ Unmarried drama series.
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“I think it's something that I've always wanted to do. I took drama in high school. I did drama in primary school. I went and I did a degree in television performance, theatre performance at AFDA, so it was always something that I knew was going to happen. But I guess I would always say YouTube was sort of the engine starter to getting into the industry.”
At this point, Neo had already studied at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles.
Speaking about this international experience, she says that she’s grateful to have gone to a country where acting is taken very seriously. With the skills acquired, the young thespian brought her A-game to every audition for three years until her breakthrough.
“It was just God’s timing to be quite honest,” she says.
From her first role on Unmarried, the actress secured a role on The Queen and recently on Generations: The Legacy, all in a space of months.
“That was one of the biggest auditions that I had done outside of the international ones, but South African wise, that was the biggest South African production that I'd had. You get so used to auditioning and getting rejected that you try not to get your hopes up. But I think from the moment I got that email, I was extremely excited to send through my audition. My agent said the casting director really liked it, and I think after a few weeks, I got the role and my first day on set was extremely surreal,” she says.
“I had a lot of anxiety just because you're surrounded by so many legends. You're surrounded by people who have been doing this thing [for so long], so there isn't really much space for a slip up or for you to seem as though you're an amateur. I've been training for this my whole life and so to be in a space now of such great magnitude was a very big deal for me. I think after the first two days [though], I realised that everybody here is just as much a storyteller as I am and there was a lot of humility on the set, which made it very easy for me to get into the character.”
Playing Dikeledi, who is better known as Didi, Neo had what she calls, “an emotional journey” till the very end.
Didi had left the soap opera only to return for a touching storyline which summed up the round character who had gone from an annoying spoilt brat who’s misunderstood to a young girl who just yearned for the love of her mother.
“I will say the first time that Didi entered the show, I was a lot more nervous in those performances. And so, I think when she came back, the character was received better by the audience because I think I was even more comfortable in my performance as an actor. A lot of people loved her [towards the end].”
When Didi returned from studying in New York, she had less attitude and had a bright future to look forward to, but she unfortunately got involved with the wrong people in the township of Alex. She then got kidnapped and just after she managed to escape, she died from a hit and run.
Reflecting on how she managed to pull this role off, she shares with Drum how it has come full circle for her.
“From as early as I can remember, I grew up going with my father (TV producer and director, Matome Rapetsoa) to rehearsal, to shows, him asking my opinion on things, as small as I was. I remember in the third grade, I definitely called my grade three teacher, and I asked her if I could please write and direct my own show, for this talent show that we were having at school. Oh, and she trusted me with it and for a nine-year-old, I think it was pretty solid. It wasn't a child show, that's the thing. It was a very dramatic adult storyline,” she giggles.
Neo’s grandfather is the late Paul Mahuma Rapetsoa who was a theatre drama producer, playwright and an actor on Skeem Saam.
“Throughout my life, I’ve always loved to explore different storylines because of the fact that I grew up in theater with my father and my grandfather's guidance and today as an adult, every single time I have auditions, I like the fact that there is somebody as close as my father that I can go to and [ask for input]. I would like to believe my father's mind in terms of the creative perspective is one of the best that I've worked with. So, it's a very big lesson for me. I don't take it for granted. It has helped me a lot in my process and my journey as an actor.”
Now as she starts the year on a clean slate, she says she’s looking forward to bagging international gigsand telling more stories to the best of her ability.
“I am praying and I'm working towards an international breakthrough, but even more so, telling stories where I'm able to actually, be more involved in the stories as an actor and not just short characters.
The young actress notes that it’s not every day that a 2k makes an impact on screens, stays on screens and earns respect in the craft and that’s what she hopes to do; “to show that your age is not a measurement of your commitment or your talent for the craft.”
