Mohau Mokoatle (née Cele; born 28 September 1991) is a South African actress and singer. She is best known for playing the character Bongi in the television series MTV Shuga, including the 2020 mini-series MTV Shuga Alone Together.
Early Life and Education
Mohau Cele was born on 28 September 1991 in Matatiele, Eastern Cape, South Africa. She was raised in Soweto. She is multilingual, speaking English, Sesotho, IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, and Setswana. She graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand.
Career
Cele's first professional acting role was with MTV Shuga, which she joined in season 4 as the character Bongi. She obtained the audition because the production was seeking a singer. Although she had done some acting at university, her first professional acting job required traveling from South Africa to Nigeria, where series 4 was filmed over six weeks. The edutainment series was backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF.
She appeared in series 4, 5, and 7 of MTV Shuga. In 2017, she played the role of Vice Principal in the SABC series Thuli noThulani.
In 2020, she was part of the mini-series MTV Shuga Alone Together, which highlighted issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The series was written and directed by Tunde Aladese and Nkiru Njoku, broadcast daily, and backed by the United Nations. The series featured actors from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Côte d'Ivoire, with all filming done remotely by the actors.
Cele is also known for her work in television, theatre, and commercial acting, as well as presenting, voice-over work, singing, poetry, and Zulu traditional dance. She has a credit as a director for the 2024 film Born Into Fame.
Personal Life
Mohau Cele is married and uses the surname Mokoatle. She is a Christian, as reflected in her public social media profiles.
