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In today's exciting edition of historic milestones made by African talents, Thuso Mbedu is officially the first South African actress to bag a leading role in an U.S. TV series.
The 28-year-old star will be plating Cora in Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railroad, which is based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize winning book by the same title.
It was just yesterday when we were celebrating Palesa Mokubung's Manthso being the first-ever African fashion label to collaborate with the global H&M brand, and now Thuso has added to her name to the list of South African firsts in the world.
While other South African actresses such as Terry Pheto and Pearl Thusi have appeared on U.S. TV series Days of Our Lives and Quantico respectively, none have played the lead internationally.
And it seems Thuso is in even more disbelief than we are, as she gleefully captioned her announcement on Instagram; "I GOT THE JOB!!!! It was such an amazing process and experience. Like, true story, just prepping to audition for this role made me grow so much. It's such a blessing and honour to tell this story... Again, words fail me so I'll stop there for now."
Thuso Mbedu's Hollywood milestone therefore comes after two International Emmy Award nominations for her role as Winnie on local TV drama Is'thunzi.
READ MORE: "I will not get lost in the hype" - Thuso Mbedu on her second Emmy nomination
This SAFTA award-winning star also appears on MTV Shuga: Down South and is also reportedly working on a crime action series, which she has written.
The Underground Railroad is an 11-episode series that will premier on Amazon. Variety reported that the cast led by Thuso is also made up of Chase W. Dillon and Aaron Pierre, will portray the story of three slaves seeking freedom.
It's safe to safe to say an Oscar nomination is well on its way for Thuso Mbedu in the not so distant future.
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