Young, Famous and African is the new reality TV series that has taken Africa by storm!
The show premiered on 18th of March 2022 on popular streaming platform Netflix and it features famous personalities from Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria and South Africa.
Viewers of the show are invested in the drama filled cast through their extravagant lives and watching the group of famous friends’ work through their interpersonal issues on screen.
Here is a character specific rundown of the drama from season one. If you haven’t already watched the show then you are in for a major spoiler alert.
Zari Hassan
Zari the Boss Lady has come far in life because of her self-confidence and she was not short of it on the show. The drama that surrounded her seemed to stem from the fact that she thinks she is better than everyone else and everyone felt “insecure” or “threatened” by her.
This resulted in a lot of arguments, the most heated of which was between her and Annie Idibia. Zari insisted that her co-star, Annie was insecure because she thought Zari was intimate with her husband, 2Baba. She called Annie and confronted her in front of her husband saying “Me and your husband have never banged” and when Annie denied feeling threatened by her she said “Girl, don’t act in front of your man”. It’s the audacity for us.
Diamond Platnumz
Within the first half an hour of which he was on screen, ‘Simba’ was on the prowl and in hot pursuit of fellow musician, Nadia Nakai. Diamond pulled out all the stops to woo Nadia. He dedicated a song to her at Khanyi’s ball and then invited her to take him car shopping, which we watched in the second episode. This changed when Zari made her debut at Diamond’s Arabic themed party of episode two. He behaved like a child who throws out his old toy at the sight of a new one. He suddenly forgot all about Nadia and was all over his ex and baby-mama.
Diamond and Zari described their relationship as “co-parenting” but what we call it is ‘messy’. When asked how his dynamic with his future partners will be with Zari in the picture he said “Zari is the queen”.
Khanyi Mbau
Also know as “The Queen of Bling”. This character awakens many mixed emotions because for one, she is extremely superficial and it is not cute. Khanyi kicks off the show, organizing a ball for all her “baller” friends who she invited because “their bank accounts all look the same”. She also sparked off some tension when she revealed that her 15-year-old daughter lives in her own apartment across from Khanyi. She however did not take too kindly to the criticism on her parenting skills.
We can’t help but feel like Khanyi is incapable of minding her own business. Throughout the season she asks people’s spouses and friends for lunches and dinners to discuss the intricacies of their inter-personal relationships. Khanyi is with no doubt the queen of bling and gossip from what we have seen in the show.
Naked DJ/Quinton Masina
Like his name, there is nothing that Naked DJ is hiding. His unfiltered comebacks reign supreme. The best part about the things that Naked DJ says is that they come so naturally to him.
We can see why his relationship with Kayleigh is on the rocks, he is rude and just cannot help it. He started the season by comparing his girlfriend, Kayleigh Schwarz to a football player when he told her that he “has to come home to Lionel Messi” after being around good looking women in the club where he works his DJ sets.
As much as this might not be appreciated in his romantic relationships, it certainly came in handy when he was telling Khanyi off for involving herself in his relationship with Kayleigh.
Annie Macaulay-Idibia
When Annie makes her debut on the show, she makes a big deal about how she is a successful woman independent of her husband, singer of “African Queen” – 2Baba/2Face and wants to be recognized as such. However, throughout the show, all the drama that involved her also seemed to involve her husband. In the first episode, she tearful told her castmates how her husband’s infidelity bore five other children, her firstborn is 2Baba’s fifth child despite the extended period the two have been together.
The irony is that she began the show telling us that her husband is unfaithful and ended it by renewing her wedding vows with him. Annie’s insecurities about her husband caused a rift between her and Zari, something that led to them exchanging unprintable words. She would later disinvite Zari from her vow renewal ceremony.
Andile Ncube
In the beginning of the show, Andile comes off as very calm and drama-free but towards the end of the show, we can see just how much he can stir the pot. Andile broke bro code as he made romantic advances towards Zari shortly after Diamond left for Tanzania to finalize his album.
Andile’s words were “I looked around and there were no Diamonds, just gold”. You have to appreciate the poetic justice. He is no stranger to baby-mama drama as he has two of his own. He went as far as inviting them plus his new love interest Zari at his all white party and it is awkward.
Nadia Nakai
Anyone who has watched the show knows that Nadia’s presence in the show was lacking in season one. Everyone else managed to interact and engage with their co-stars in a way that entertained us as viewers but Nadia was neither here nor there. We would have loved to see more of Nadia in her element as a rapper. The only time she contributed to the plot was when she was being pursued by Diamond and had the time to hate on Zari because she felt intimidated by her.
In season two, Nadia is going to have to pull through more or be bumped from the cast to make room for a Kenyan cast member.
Swanky Jerry
He has to be one of our favorite characters. The award-winning stylist is the definition of African excellence. The man serves looks round the clock, he is kind, genuine and loyal to his friends who he has referred to many times as “family”. We were also able to witness his short-fuse when him and Naked DJ got into it on the Blue train. Let’s just say, you don’t want to mess with Swanky. He also styled many of the cast members throughout the show, especially his Nigerian bestie, Annie so be on the lookout for those looks.
All in all, the show itself was entertaining. Johannesburg is an exciting and easy location to bring African celebrities together to film a reality show. The fashion, filming locations, and most of the cast brought out Africa’s beauty.
In season two we would like to see them diversify the cast more in order to make it truly Pan-African and we know drama is essential for any reality show, but it would also be nice if they did slightly less to advance the stereotype of African women being conflictual.
Will you be watching out for season two?
