Presley Chweneyagae
Acting
Biography
Presley Chweneyagae (October 19, 1984 — May 27, 2025) was a South African actor best known for his breakthrough lead role in Tsotsi (2005). Chweneyagae went into acting at an early age, taking acting classes from the age of 10. His first major role proved to be a history-making one, securing the part of David, aka Tsotsi, in Gavin Hood’s searing 2005 crime drama Tsotsi. In the film, set in a Johannesburg township, Chweneyagae plays a small-time hoodlum who steals a car, only to discover a baby in the back seat that causes him to change his ways. Tsotsi was a huge hit with critics, with praise especially for Chweneyagae’s performance. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for best foreign language film, becoming the first South African film to win an Oscar. The success of Tsotsi secured Chweneyagae's place as one of the best known South African actors. As well as features, Chweneyagae’s found great success on domestic television, and was arguably better known in South Africa for his lead role in the popular telenovela The River (2028–24). In the Pretoria-set show, which takes place in the diamond mining industry, Chweneyagae’s scheming, villainous and charismatic Thuso ‘Cobra’ Mokoena became a fan favorite, and he received his own spin-off series, Cobrizi. The River won Chweneyagae a South African Film and Television Award in 2019, and helped Chweneyagae become a streaming star outside South Africa as the series became popular in other parts of Africa. As well as film and TV, Chweneyagae was deeply involved in theater, boasting extensive credits and starring in several Shakespeare productions. Chweneyagae also wrote and directed plays. He co-wrote, with Paul Grootboom, the acclaimed stage play Relativity and directed the award-winning production CELL NO 4. Chweneyagae died from natural causes on May 27, 2025, at the age of 40.
Known For
A chronicle of Nelson Mandela's life journey from his childhood in a rural village through to his inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
A young South African boy from the Johannesburg ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster, leaves home as a child to get away from his helpless parents. Now a teenage thug, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat of a car he's just stolen. He decides that it is his responsibility to care for the infant and in the process learns that maybe the criminal life isn’t the best way.
Tsotsi
A diamond discovery in the river running between the poor township of Refilwe and the affluent neighbourhood of Silver Lakes quickly turns from a blessing to a curse.
The River
When an undercover cop is tasked with investigating a historic gold heist in Johannesburg, he’s forced to choose between his conscience and the law.
iNumber Number: Jozi Gold
The extraordinary story of three Rwandan children who attempt to realize the dream of their life: to attend the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup 2010 at Johannesburg.
Africa United
When Chili Ncgobo, an honest but ambitious undercover cop, is cheated out of a major reward by his corrupt superiors, he infiltrates a cash-in-transit heist gang, and instead of busting them, he decides to participate in a one off score. He must face off against his partner who refuses to let him do it and one of the gang members who recognizes him as a cop.
Avenged
When the wife of a successful black businessman with roots in the struggle against apartheid is murdered by a young stranger who knows his name, he has to go back into his own past to find the answers that will lead him to the killer. But when he finds him and the reasons for the murder, will vengeance still be possible?
State of Violence
Told through the stories of five former prisoners, this is the story of political activists sent to the notorious Robben Island prison in the 1960s by the apartheid regime, who rise above their incarceration by creating a football league and finding an outlet for their passion and commitment to discipline through the Beautiful Game.
More Than Just a Game
After a young protégé's murder confirms a prison gang leader's growing misgivings about his life inside, he joins a reform-minded warden's efforts to improve the prison, eyeing it as a path to early release. Gaining fulfillment and self-worth, he becomes a valued partner in the new changes before explosive gang resistance forces a deadly choice between the gangster he is and the changing man he knows he now is.
The Number
In South Africa's gold-mining region is the subterranean dimension of the Zama Zama, illegal miners that make a living by mining the ore in both operational and abandoned mine shafts. "Zama Zama" is the personal narrative of two brothers: Malcolm, a successful businessman in the mining industry; and his long-lost brother Joseph, one of those who work in the underground tunnels--playing off against the tension of the mines' punitive actions against these miners.
Zama Zama
In this story of South meets West, Don P is one of the most feared gangsters in the township, with his xenophobic partner in crime JJ. It's South African gangsters meeting a Nigerian white collar crime kingpin by the name of Carlos Ortega, all in the name of fraud, when these two elements meets all hell breaks loose.
Menda City
A young man put in a moral dilemma is forced to choose between saving his dying pregnant wife or going against his beliefs.