- Shoki credits the production team for Prudence’s complex and multi-dimensional nature.
- Memorable moments she’s had playing Prudence on Scandal! include the arc where she loses her job as a reverend.
- Through her nearly 30-year career, Shoki has honed in her craft of fully immersing in every character she plays.
Shoki Mmola’s bright smile is familiar to many and, after 10 years as Skeem Saam’s Celia Kunutu, TV lovers now see her as Vuvu’s (played by Mamarumo Marokane) holier than thou yet cunning mother, Prudence Molepo on Scandal!
The seasoned actress and businesswoman brings to life Prudence, a woman of the faith who tends to stand on a moral high ground to mask her own shortcomings. The first of which is her estranged relationship with her daughter, whom she tends to be hard on.
She is judgmental about her daughter’s sexuality and having two children out of wedlock. Prudence’s storyline has had its fair share of ups, downs, trials and tribulations that fit ever so sweetly with Shoki’s impressive range.
A woman, a mother, a fighter
TRUELOVE caught a moment with the actress who shares a vivid description of Prudence’s evolution since her debut in March 2023.
“I give props to the production team. I’m working with a fantastic innovative team that will write different stories at a drop of a hat and the introduction of Prudence – especially because she is a woman of the cloth – and then showing character because one of the things I appreciate about Prudence is that she is not just a reverend, she’s a woman first. A woman that is there to protect her family, a woman that will want what she needs for her children.”
Shoki especially admires how the show’s writers are able to create a complex and multi-dimensional character seeing the world through intersecting identities.
“You know, we tend to impersonalise people in certain careers,” Shoki shares.
“I’ve heard stories saying about, ‘Oh, he’s a policeman on TikTok, oh she’s a doctor on TikTok but they’re doing that [and] they’re dancing’, you know what I mean, which the public then perceive as going against the profession. But you’re a human being first and I like how they’ve showcased that.”
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Over the past year of diving deep into her character, Shoki has seen Prudence through the difficulties of accepting her lesbian daughter, losing her job at the church and even questioning the DNA of Vuvu’s children.
@etvscandal Kwaze kwa Tricky! Prudence is telling Vuvu about the DNA test. Now for the HUGE questions on everyone’s mind, should she tell Nhlamulo about the DNA results?? ?? ?? #etvscandal ? original sound - Scandal!
Bringing to life multi-dimensional characters
Sharing some memorable moments she had playing the reverend, Shoki says, “In the very beginning when she met her daughter, I think immediately we could sense the type of relationship they have. Her losing her job I felt was the biggest – I would say it was a big story for her, it was the biggest arc for her at the moment that we have seen.
“This is a woman that has lived to serve and to have that taken away from her, it absolutely broke her. I think that’s why she [found] herself putting fingers in everything she can get because honestly, what comes first for her is to fix relationships, to fix situations, to try and get the truth out because in the end, yes it might be bittersweet but in the end the truth really is what she serves. She serves the truth and she serves her God, she loves her God.”
Shoki would love to see Prudence back working in the church, mending the relationships she’s broken like with her parents and interact with characters like the comedic MaHilda, played by Gcebisile Piliso Dlamini.
But Shoki’s journey in acting certainly didn’t start with Skeem Saam or Scandal! The thespian has been performing onstage and onscreen for almost 30 years, with a new comedic role viewers can look forward to in a yet-to-be-disclosed Netflix film.
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Revealing how she approaches every character she takes on, Shoki says, “I have done theatre, I have done television, I have done soap operas, I have done movies and I treat every contract the same way. You need to know who you’re there to play.
“You need to understand their flaws, you need to understand what makes them tick, you need to understand what makes them who they are, what makes them the human that they become and where you would like to see them go. Every character for me I flesh it out with that – who is she, where is she coming from, her aspirations, her fears, her flaws.”
Creating magic through fashion
It’s not just theatre and TV that Shoki excels in. The actress and mother started her own fashion line titled Vintage Shock, which has helped with matric dance dresses and has been a uniforms supplier.
Shoki tells us how she got into fashion through her Muvhango character Tumi and was mentored by Miss South Africa dress designer Norman Callan.
“I’ve always loved fashion. When I was ko Muvhango, I remember … the storyline [was ] that [Tumi] was going to branch into designing … At the time it was just going to be a make-believe and leave it at that, and I said to ntate Duma [Ndlovu], ‘I actually would like to take myself to school so you can see me running the machine, you can see me cutting patterns. But for me to do that so I can be believable, it means I need to take myself to school.
