Based: Johannesburg
Born and bred in Cape Town, Terence Bridgett began his schooling at the Drakensberg Boys Choir School, matriculated at SACS and graduated from UCT Drama School with a BA, a Performers Diploma in Speech and Drama and a Fleur du Cap nomination for Most Promising Student.
Two years on the boards in Cape Town saw him in various dramas, comedies and musicals, as well as his favourite: Shakespearian productions! With Macbeth, A Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, Cardenio and A Midsummer Night’s Dream under his belt, he is delighted to announce that his ‘Bottom’ has recently been nominated for a Fleur du Cap Award! ‘Twas, in fact, The Bard that sent him North. Clare Stopford’s Twelfth Night brought him to Jozi in 1998, where his subsequent stage production, Babes in the Wood, earned him a Vita nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy Role.
After his television debut in Hotnotsgode, Terence appeared in various dramas and sitcoms before landing the role of Chico Booysens in SABC 3’s Isidingo – a role which garnered him an Avanti Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2001. Dubbed by the media as South Africa’s ‘Soap Slut’ after his subsequent appearences in 7de Laan and Backstage, he is proud of his association with such local productions as Zero Tolerance, Snitch, The Lab and the Canadian co-productions Rough and Jozi H.
For his sins, he can also be seen in a bevy of seriously B-grade international features playing everything from a Mexican astronaut to an Arabic simpleton! He is therefore ecstatic to have appeared in Disgrace with his favourite actor, John Malkovich.
In 2004, together with actor and entrepreneur Rowan Cloete, Terence launched 8Ball Productions – a theatre company which since then has mounted Crimes of the Heart, Plofstof, The Unvarnished Truth, the 25th anniversary production of Poppie Nongena, the critically acclaimed Love! Valour! Compassion! and three seasons of the box office success, My Night with Reg – which landed him a Fleur du Cap nomination along the way. While we’re on the subject of awards, Terence is proud to have been elected by the public vote as South Africa’s Favourite Actor for 2010 at the You Spectacular Awards.
On the musical stage, Terence has recently shaved his head as Pharoah in Paul Warwick Griffin’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, shed 15kg’s (and most of his clothes) for Saturday Night Fever – The Musical, and donned a 4 foot purple wig opposite Tobie Cronjé in the Baroque comedy, Sing, played the Fox in Pinocchio, and was Herod in Pieter Toerien’s Jesus Christ Superstar.
His recent return to Isidingo was interrupted by yet another soap as he continued to live up to his media nickname of SA’s ‘Soap Slut’ and moved onto Mnet’s Binneland Sub Judice,where he earned an ATKV Mediaveertjie award for his portrayal of the Paulse twins. Terence has recently screened on the 2nd and 3rd seasons of Erfsondes and The Lab respectively, and is currently on air in Season 3 of Zero Tolerance and Season 4 of the award-winning political drama, 90 Plein Street.
On the local film circuit, Terence appears in Tim Green’s comedy Skeem, e’Lollipop 2, Pretville, Musiek vir die Agtergrond and Jimmy in Pienk. Internationally he has been seen in Sumuru, Global Effect, From Dusk Till Dawn III and 2015 will see him in the local comedy Knysna, the art house movie While You Weren’t Looking and playing twins in the revisited animé feature, Kite, opposite Samuel L Jackson.
He has also spent some time on the festival circuit over the last year with the 3rd season of his first one-man-show, a cabaret from his own pen entitled All Soaped Up, as well as his critically acclaimed performance in Athol Fugard’s classic, Master Harold en die Boys.
In 2012, Terence launched his television production company, Fanagalo Films with long time friend Paul du Toit. They have since produced their travel show Rough or Smooth in 2 languages for SA broadcast. Season 1 is currently back on air and they are presently working on their second season as a co-production with their Canadian distributor.
Having hosted his own talk show, Late Night with Terence, he is currently cooking his heart out on SA’s first Celebrity Masterchef to make as much money as he can for Foodbank SA.
He’s currently shooting Season 2 of the popular comedy, Those Who Can’t for SABC 3, and may have some global surprises up his sleeve this year.
Terence Bridgett
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