Jasen Mphepo

Actor

Belonging to what can be termed as a class of enterprising, versatile and youngish thespians; Jasen Mphepo is an actor, filmmaker, writer and businessperson. He has worked on various productions such as the 36 television episodes of Suburb D, a comedy Ghetto Fellaz, New Dawn and a sitcom Waiters.

He founded and is a director of Patsime Edutainment Trust which owns and operates Jasen Mphepo Little Theatre in Eastlea, Harare. The theatre space was officially opened in May 2019. He won the Outstanding Screen Production award at National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) in 2011 for New Dawn. Jasen is an Executive Director at Patsime Edutainment Trust.

Multi-award winning thespian and development practitioner, Jasen Mphepo is a rare breed of talent, vision and charisma. His well-played acting role as Marcelino in the first-ever Zimbabwean comedy series ‘Waiters’ brought him to stardom and from then on he has never looked back. To date, he has featured in many theatre productions at local, regional and international levels.

Jasen also combines his acting skills with project management and organizational leadership. He is a certified trainer with advanced competencies in skills and knowledge transfer; teaching Drama for Amateurs and Using Arts as a tool for advocacy, conflict resolution, information dissemination and behaviour change.

Jasen’s insights, candour and creativity are what made him develop Patsime Edutainment Trust over the last ten years from a community theatre group to a world-class institution that has attracted funding across the donor and corporate communities.

Patsime is today a centre of excellence, a learning hub in the use of multi-media as a development tool. Under the Trust, he has managed to craft development communication strategies in different target communities across the country.

One such model is the ‘Buddies for Love’, a project which uses mostly theatre as an educational tool targeting young people of school-going age. The project reaches up to 120 schools across the country with a reach of over 30000 young students. ‘Buddies for Love’, which is a behavioural change project, is a Sexual Reproductive Health-oriented project which discusses health matters with young people from the age group 8 -17 through the medium of the arts (theatre).

His multiple awards include Best Male Actor in Theatre and film, Best Film Production, Best TV Drama scooped at the National Arts Merits Awards (NAMA). He is also a one time winner of the USAID Auxillia Chimusoro Award for excellence in development communication. Jasen is a prolific writer, performer and Director and has become one of the many successful theatre Producers in Zimbabwe of his time.

The Jasen Mphepo Little Theatre is a hub of edutainment and infotainment activities that also gives aspiring artists a platform to showcase and grow their talent. It has a diverse line up of events all year round. Jasen’s entrepreneurial skills complement his art and he remains outstanding amongst his peers, figures that others aspire to emulate.—- NACZ.