At only 13, child actress Stycie Waweru is making moves in the film industry and has already starred in a number of international projects. She’s now set to make waves as the voice behind an African child superhero.
A quick Google search session will reveal that 13-year-old actress Stycie Waweru recently appeared in the 2021 Netflix film, Just In Time, starring as Ashley.
Dive in further and you’ll see that her impressive IMDb (Internet Movie Database) profile has a growing list of credits, including roles in Lusala (2019) and Supa Modo, the 2019 superhero film that first cast her into the limelight.
The young star has shared the screen with top Kenyan actresses Sarah Hassan and Pierra Makena and has been featured by CNN, Deutsche Welle, Rotten Tomatoes, Toronto Guardian and many other top news platforms and publications for her roles, which often highlight girl-child empowerment, reflecting the lives of modern Africans.
Under the guidance of Kenya’s best-known film star, Lupita Nyong’o, Waweru has been working with a team at Kukua, an edutainment startup based out of Nairobi, on the globally acclaimed Super Sema series. She is the voice behind the main character, Sema.
In the series, her character, together with a twin brother, battles a villainous super robot, Tobor, to protect the twins’ hometown. The series has built a fan base across the planet, much to Waweru’s delight.
Her father, Joseph Njata, who is also her manager, has played a key role in her meteoric rise to fame, while her mother, Agnes Muigai, is widely credited with shaping the star appearing on screens across Africa and around the world.
Waweru’s keen interest in being an actress, however, started off when she was just two years old, according to her parents.
“She was always glued on television to a point where she would forget her meals. She would also act as if nobody else was in the house – it was only her and cartoons. Her favourite one was the Teletubbies. She knew those characters by name, and I remember we would miss the seven o’clock news on television as she watched her cartoons. She was literally the boss of the TV remote in the house,” says her dad. BY MPASHO NEWS