Nyokabi Macharia

Nyokabi Macharia, is an award winning actor, director and producer based in Nairobi, Kenya. She won Best Lead Actress in a Film in 2022's Kalasha International Film & TV Awards for her role as Wendo in Chaguo. She trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama pursuing her MA in Music Theatre. She is drawn to roles that are both physically and vocally demanding- appearing in the world famous Jesus Christ Superstar as Mary Magdalene, the children's stage musical Tinga Tinga Tales as Giraffe and played multiple roles in the all women ensemble of Brazen Edition: Too Early for Birds. She has performed at the Kenya National Theatre, the New Victory Theatre in New York, Club Silly and Theatre 503 both in London. Her first TV role in 2019 was as Zawadi in MaEmpress. She has since appeared in other shows such as the multi award winning Selina, the Showmax original Crime and Justice, County 49 and Kenya's first series on Netflix, Country Queen. She also played her first lead role in the feature film Chaguo which premiered in Cinemas in 2022 and has just concluded shooting her second feature film as a lead set to premier in April 2023. While away in school she staged her first live stream solo performance Actors Anonymous to critical acclaim. She is also a voice actor featured on the animated series Super Sema as Mrs. Tam Tam alongside Lupita Nyong'o. During the height of the Covid pandemic, after watching the National Theatre's Frankenstein she was inspired to produce and direct an adaptation of the play, A Book and Its Cover available on YouTube. Together with Nice Githinji, they formed a theatre company, Shorts From Africa. The initiative came about from a need to help artists from multidisciplinary art forms create during the pandemic with whatever resource they had. Their first challenge was to give 72 hours to participants to write, rehearse and perform excerpts from the book, My Life In Crime over Instagram. The second edition expanded to collaboration with artists from 10 different nationalities challenged to create on a prompt. She then directed Shorts From Africa's first in person play, How To Have an Affair; A Cheaters' Guide which received 6 nominations and won Best Two Hander Play in 2023's Kenya Theatre Awards. In 2021, she landed a spot as one of the directors in Theatre For One, a virtual theatre show which was an Octopus Theatricals production in collaboration with NYU Abu Dhabi.