Sisanda Henna can proudly brag about his successes as an actor, director and producer. And rightfully so. At 39, this is an accomplishment to be proud of in the cutthroat showbiz industry.
Although he recently made his feature film directorial debut with “One Night Kwa Mxolisi”, a Showmax original for Mzansi Magic, he’s been honing his craft behind the camera for several years now.
As much as his journey continues to be fuelled by an irrepressible hunger and passion to hone his craft in different aspects of filmmaking, failure has been an integral part of the learning process. And he owns it.
I’ve watched Henna in silent admiration for several years now. After a few failed attempts at a tête-à-tête, we finally settled on a Zoom call, where he confirmed that he is currently one of the directors on BET’s first telenovela, “Isono”, too.
Interestingly, last year, he auditioned for a role on the show. It didn’t materialise as he was approached to play Sisanda Nkosi in M-Net’s thriller, “Inconceivable”.
It was while he was interviewed by an “Isono” director for something unrelated that his name was once again put forth to Clive Morris Productions, whom he worked with – more on the writing side of things, though – for “Broken Vows”.
Before delving into his current achievements, we revisited his start in the industry on SABC1’s Tsha Tsha, which bagged him a Duku Duku accolate for Best Actor.
He quickly paused the chat, with the glint of pride in his eyes most conspicuous, to grab the trophy off his shelf to give me a closer look.
He was 21 when he caught the eye of the industry. But he was far from dazzled by fame even though he had every right to be so.
Henna was more preoccupied with growing in other facets of the industry and found himself working as a runner and personal assistant at T.O.M. Pictures, which was co-founded by Robbie Thorpe, Akin Omotoso and Kgomotso Matsunyane.
“I would work in the production office in between all the acting jobs, sort of learning and climbing the ladder,” he recalled.
Close on a decade later, he made his directorial debut on the second installment of “Intersexions”.
He laughed: “It was with the same company as ‘Tsha Tsha’ – Quizzical Pictures – and with the same director of photography. It was nice to come full circle.”
His other directorial projects included “Gauteng Maboneng”, “Gold Diggers” as well as”Greed & Desire”, where he got to work with “Isono’s” Nthati Moshesh.
But he still yearned for more. He wanted to master the art of storytelling from a writing perspective.
This desire saw him being taken under the wing of the revered Ilse van Hemert.
“She was the showrunner for ‘Scandal!’ She gave me six months and trained me. She put me in the writers’ room and I was shadow writing. I was also one of the trainee directors,” Henna noted.
To this day, he counts his blessing at having been mentored by her and other industry giants, too.
The migration to behind the scenes dominated his career for several years. In that time, he also launched a production company, which went belly up.
“I decided I wanted to pitch my own shows. By 2013, we had a few small shows here and there. Then the company went bust at the end of 2016.
“We were busy with an SABC1 show. I put all my eggs in one basket and this was the not-so-glamourise reality. We lost everything.
“We finished the show with another company. By then we had to sell off assets, I shut down the office, let go of the staff. After that I could get back into acting and went on to do ‘Trackers’ and ‘Rogue’,” he said.
In fact, Henna mentioned that he’s keeping his fingers crossed as “Agent”, another series of his has been submitted for an Emmy.
Despite the failure of his first production house, he tried again. “At the end of 2019, I started up a new company. I just had that vision you know.”
This brings us to his recent feature film “One Night Kwa Mxolisi”, where he shares the screen with his first-born son, Micaiah Henna.
The movie was shot during Covid-19 and despite concerns about the production being delayed, he was chuffed to have bagged such a stellar cast.
On having his son in the film, he couldn’t be prouder.
He shared: “All the pride really started to surface in the edit. I was shocked at how good he is. On set, he was really cute and such a pro. He would say, ‘Daddy, do you need us to go again’,”
Henna added: “Being a dad is by far the most satisfying and gratifying blessing in my life and it’s just such a beautiful and a heartwarming thing that we could be in a movie together.”
By the way, his second born, who is a huge fan of action, is also itching to flex his acting muscles.
Aside from making his mark in the industry, Henna is proud to be nurturing and grooming his own flesh and flood to take over, too.
He admitted: “Everytime I look at Tom Cruise, who owns and produces ‘Mission Impossible’ – even if you look at Will Smith and his company – it encouraged me to say, ‘You can still be an entrepreneur and a movie star’. Own the stuff you create.”
“Acting comes from within. The ones who are most comfortable in their own skin, they always do their own work. It’s about becoming and there can only be one Sisanda Henna.
“The biggest thing is about learning, being inspired and having a burning desire. That is what pretty much happened. When I turn 40, we can have a proper interview about what I learned,” he laughed. -IOL
