Christa Biyela
Biyela’s writing experience dates back to 1994 where she began writing radio dramas. She currently writes storylines for Uzalo, Mamello, Igazi, and upcoming telenovella The Queen which will appear on DSTV’s Mzansi Magic channel. She also wrote for Season 4 of the drama series, Rockville. Furthermore Biyela was a Head Writer for Kusa Kusa, Ukhozi FM’s first soapie for a period of three years. She has worked as a translator for a television series Skeem Saam Seasons 1 & 2 broadcast on SABC 1.
Besides being a writer, she was a creator, writer and producer of ‘Sihlomulelana Ngolwazi’, an HIV/AIDS weekly show on Ukhozi FM that aired July 2010 to April 2012 and Siphila Kayi 1, Ukhozi FM’s first sitcom.
Biyela’s performing arts passion extends to the theatre industry, where she was a Durban Theatre Judge for a period of seven years. She is one of the judges for the PANSA/NLDTF Festival of Reading of New Writing and an External Moderator for Drama & Production Studies Scriptwriting at the Durban University of Technology (DUT).
Biyela has travelled throughout KwaZulu-Natal giving motivational talks on HIV/AIDS issues, primarily focusing on positive living. She has presented approximately 100 talks to private companies, governments departments, schools, correctional centres and rural communities. Her motivational talks are influenced by her life living with HIV for a period of 18 years. In 2016 she appeared as a participant at the Time of the Writer festival.
In terms of her literary output her debut novel, Getting Dirty, Sex is Great but, Let’s be Honest, was released in 2014. She is currently working on her second novel, her first screenplay and her first co-produced TV series. (Profile courtesy of the UKZN Centre for Creative Arts)
Website: christabiyela.co.za
Twitter: @christabiyela
Bibliography
2014. Getting Dirty, Sex is Great, but Let’s be Honest. Johannesburg. Porcupine Press.
Biyela’s performing arts passion extends to the theatre industry, where she was a Durban Theatre Judge for a period of seven years. She is one of the judges for the PANSA/NLDTF Festival of Reading of New Writing and an External Moderator for Drama & Production Studies Scriptwriting at the Durban University of Technology (DUT).
Biyela has travelled throughout KwaZulu-Natal giving motivational talks on HIV/AIDS issues, primarily focusing on positive living. She has presented approximately 100 talks to private companies, governments departments, schools, correctional centres and rural communities. Her motivational talks are influenced by her life living with HIV for a period of 18 years. In 2016 she appeared as a participant at the Time of the Writer festival.
In terms of her literary output her debut novel, Getting Dirty, Sex is Great but, Let’s be Honest, was released in 2014. She is currently working on her second novel, her first screenplay and her first co-produced TV series. (Profile courtesy of the UKZN Centre for Creative Arts)
Website: christabiyela.co.za
Twitter: @christabiyela
Bibliography
2014. Getting Dirty, Sex is Great, but Let’s be Honest. Johannesburg. Porcupine Press.