"People can say what they want, they can suggest and even strongly suggest, but at the end of the day if I choose to go with what they suggest and I live like that then I’ll be the one living like that, not them"

"I rarely got it right the first time. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t know why they were telling me to say things that weren’t true. The teachers would try convincing me and told me it was just acting but I didn’t know what was going on. It took me a while but every year I was in the plays and that’s when I started getting familiar with acting"

"didn’t go to school for acting and I’ve never had a lesson in my life but when I was in primary and high school I was in all the plays. In Grade 9, when I was supposed to choose subjects, I wanted to take Drama but my parents were like ‘No honey, we are not paying for you to play games on a stage"

"At times, I cried because I knew about poverty but when I experienced it for the first time, it became real. During takes and getting my make-up done I’d literally just start crying because the story felt so real."

"Soul City was an eye-opener because before we started shooting I had never been in a shack before"

"As a survivor of GBV, I accept that telling these stories is a part of my ministry and that it’s not something I have to erase after I engage in the material"

"It’s important for us to see ourselves reflected in the entertainment industry, films, series and documentaries we watch and the books we read"

"I don’t shed anything. It’s more of a case of incorporating all my life’s realities into the picture and finding a way to accept the multiple truths that exist for me"

"I love adventure, risk and the opportunity to learn something new about myself and the world I live in"

"That's how I got my first draw in this business. You have to stay ready to be called up any time. It happens quite a lot, that is the spontaneity of the business"

"I guess they saw the tape from 2014 and remembered me. It was sort of a call back. I just did two very light scenes and was in. Scandal! is one of the shows that I've always wanted to be part of"

"Some just watch to be on the look out for the next pretty girl. It's not a bad thing. I'm getting more following on social media. It's nice to be appreciated"

"No, personally I don't think I'm the sexiest but it's a compliment. I don't know what to say, these are overpowering comments. I'm meant to take the character to greater heights and that's exactly what I'm doing"

"I have done well for myself. I am successful but I feel the need to meet my father for my life to be complete"

"I grew up with my mother, so I consider myself black. I met my dad when he passed away but I never got to know anything white about me"

"Because I grew up in a township there was a whole lot of people calling me white and asking me to speak English, I had to have a good sense of humour about it. You either cry or you laugh"

"The fact that there’s actually so many things to do with your kids here because most destinations are targeted at adults, but this is a family friendly place"

"My thesis in life is if you’re fearful, you will never get anywhere so I take life by the horns. Life is exciting and its short so live it wildly"

"I have great family, great friends and wonderful kids that make my life easier."

"I guess it’s having a great support system around"

"From an early age, I learnt to have courage after seeing my community protesting and fighting against apartheid."

"I am everything that my heart desires to be. I am a woman, an artist, a lover of life and most importantly, a woman living a purposeful life. I am thankful for the gift of life and the chance to do what I love"

"Good day, beautiful friends. I hope you're well. I miss you. I just want to say thank you for your support. There's no smooth life storms and waves happen, but they are nothing. It's just a distraction. In your path all this happening is pushed by the wind"

"Speak to the wind, command with the authority and declare with power of God in you and prevail. I bless you, I am grateful I am getting stronger daily"

"He fought for me. He kept lifting the standard against stroke. Stroke is cruel, is mean. I came a long way. First and foremost, there was no sign at all"

"It was traumatising. I crawled on one side to go to the toilet. It was scary"

"It was so frightening. It was not easy for me"

"I want to address the issue of mental health. The way my stroke happened shocked me. I was so scared to sleep and I needed to sleep so my nervous system could relax. I could not sleep. Actually, I did not want to sleep"

"Never say no. I always said no at the beginning. I’d say, “No, I won’t do this, I’ll wait for that. No, I won’t do this yet"

"I think I felt a great sense of liberation when I turned 40. I was less hard on myself. We have this terrible stigma that we are lesser than"

"I seldom get depressed and if I do, it’s very shortlived and it’s usually about a play or in the process of a character"

"I tend to be a very optimistic person"

"I think the challenge has been to make a living basically because we are not hugely supported"

"Part of me would say that you do everything and anything because even in something that may not seem interesting at the time, there is a reason for it to come."

"I always believe – If I direct I’ll become a better actor, and if I act I’ll become a better diretor"

"I am still not where I’d like to be but I’m so thankful that God qualifies the seemingly unqualified and his purposes far outweigh the opinion of anyone else. So, I push on and push through and little by little step into all he has planned for me"

"Absorb, learn, long story short, I am so proud of the actor I’ve become [it took me forever to even refer to myself as an actor] I look at the growth from when I started, not having a clue what I was doing [sometimes I still feel like I have no idea what I’m doing to this day]."

"This was acting school for me, I would watch and absorb choices these actors made, watch movies and ‘steal’ from other actors. All while sitting behind the NFH reception desk as the featured extra"

"But for years I felt unqualified, seeking validation from anyone and everyone, validation that I had what it took to be a ‘thespian’. I’d idolise fellow actors and wish I could be as authentic and as vulnerable as they were"

"So while holding on, I took every opportunity to learn. In every audition as a casting assistant I would ‘play’ alongside distinguished actors, not just read for them but give a performance"

"Truthfully, I wanted to quit many times, sometimes I still do. But there was always this very silent voice within me echoing ‘hold on Steph, the best is yet to come"

"What started out as a way to make some extra cash on the side turned into a full-blown love for the art of storytelling"

"Long and vulnerable but perhaps it inspires someone. So, for those who don’t know, acting was never the plan. It was never even an option really, I was an academic, well on my way to my PhD in social linguistics"

"At the time, my family and I didn’t know I was suffering from depression. I was a very quiet child who was always just in the background at school. I was withdrawn and didn’t really have friends, but I was focused on getting school done"

"I hope Dream School will have a positive impact on the children on the show and that it will help parents and teenagers who watch the show to communicate better"

"The show is not about focusing on those things, it’s about helping them move forward."