Yanga Mgabadeli

Yanga Mgabadeli was born in King Williams Town. He matriculated from Thembalabantu High School, before studying Versatile Broadcasting at WSU, then later on studying clothing and textiles at CPUT. Yanga has worked as an artistic director and designer at Mbaula Multi-Media. He has worked as a costume designer, production designer and actor since 2009 under Film Fam, Thunderberg Films and Greenhaus Films on music videos and TV commercials.

Yanga has worked on music videos which were nominated for South African Music Awards in 2011 and 2013 respectively. In 2015 Yanga starred in and did the costume design for Ghanaian artist “Manifest - Forget Dem” music video which was viewed on MTV BASE, Okay Africa and Channel O. The music videos shot under Thunderberg Films won 3 international awards in 2018. In 2018 Yanga led a heritage Ukwanda project which re-imagined Maqoma, SEK Mqhayi and Maqoma. He is currently the founder and curator of Mbaula backyard sessionz. Yanga is also the Co-Founder of 560 Life NPO, a sport, arts and culture initiative based in Bhisho. In 2019 Yanga Mgabadeli became the founder and curator of Mbaula Backyard Sessionz, an event set to exhibit artists of different disciplines in one space.