Based: Johannesburg

Hlubi Mboya is a South African actress and AIDS ambassador best known for her role as Nandipha Sithole on the SABC3 soapie Isidingo.

She was one of the celebrity contestants on the fifth season of the SABC2 reality dance competition Strictly Come Dancing, from September to November, 2008. Her professional dance partner was Khutso Khunou.

Her role as Nandipha – who is HIV-positive – enabled Hlubi to travel throughout Africa to places such as Tanzania and Zambia as an HIV/AIDS ambassador.

She graduated from Rustenburg Girls’ High School in Cape Town. In late 2000 she took over the role of Nandipha Sithole on Isidingo from Manaka Ranaka, who was fired after seven months in the role when she informed producers she was pregnant.

Hlubi has graced the covers of a number of South African magazines including True Love and Elle. She is the proudest of her Elle cover, as she was the first black woman (non-model) to appear on its front page.

She has also been ranked in five editions of FHM magazine’s 100 Sexiest Woman In The World.

Aside from her longstanding role in Isidingo, Hlubi also presented the second season of the SABC2 “mind makeover” television series It’s For Life, which aired at midday on Sundays in mid-2005.

She made her film acting debut in the 2006 South African short film Shogun Khumalo Is Dying!, written and directed by Daron Chatz and Jahmil X.T. Qubeka.

On 26 September, 2007 she and her sister, tabloid journalist and television presenter Kuli Roberts, were the subject of the fourth episode of the e.tv documentary series Behind the Name, which showcased some of South Africa’s biggest showbiz personalities, chronicling their rise to fame.

In 2014 she had a starring role in the SABC1 drama series Mfolozi Street.