Nirvana Nokwe-Mseleku, better known as Nirvana Nokwe, is a performance artist of varied disciplines. The star is trained singer, actor, music producer, model, and filmmaker. Having had a commercial background in print, advertising, film, as well as a heavy handed experience in broadcasting, performance art and music, her aims are to create an audio-visual experience, through her brand, encompassing beauty, high art, fashion and performance. Nirvana’s storytelling is intimate, truthful and, quite literally, out of this world with her ethereal sounds and deep passions for astrology.
Her personal brand encapsulates the modern day intellectualised dreamer, reflecting on the complexities of life and her place in the world. While she is Johannesburg born, she identifies more with her years in KwaMashu and Lamtonville, Durban. Her family is rooted in the arts, making it possible for Nirvana to have participated in the entertainment industry at 4-years-old as a professional. By the age of 10, Nirvana understood what she was doing in entertainment and concluded that she wanted to continue pursuing a career in the arts.
Through Amajika Youth and Children Arts, a school founded by mother and grandparents Tu, Patty and Alfred Nokwe, Nirvana participated in the Umoja Cultural Flying Carpet and more recently the Los Spirido Del Pianetta festival in Italy. At the Arts and Culture Festivals, Nirvana competed as part of the Zulu tribe delegation to represent the Zulu heritage. These cultural exchange experiences have influenced Nirvana’s creative direction towards her solo projects.Since her start in the industry, Nirvana contributed to music for advertisements, in addition to background music for films, and has participated in voice over work. Marilyn Nokwe, former member of Mango Groove, mentored and introduced Nirvana to the world of commercial and cinematic audio production. Nirvana’s vocal contributions can be found in productions alongside South African musicians like the late great Hugh Masekela, Shaluza Max, and Busi Mhlongo.
As a solo artist, she began her career on SoundCloud with the release of The Travel Playlist. Her debut EP, Cosmic Bae Trilogy III saw her flex her writing chops with subject matters that sought the intersection of astrology and love. In addition, it was her first foray into producing herself. Nirvana’s musical subject composition draws on the cultures she encountered during her time overseas at arts and culture festivals. However it is her relationship with her father that has informed much of her melancholy subject material. Due to his battle with stage 2 Bipolar Disorder, Bheki Mseleku, renowned UK based South African jazz musician, was absent for a large part of Nirvana’s life. His absence has influenced her understanding of love and her interpersonal relationships, as best seen in songs like Medusa and Waiting. Granted, melancholy is not to be inferred from her production, as she often juxtaposes her written subject material with uptempo compositions, such as her house collaboration with DJ Tefo for Emaweni, and features on Okmalumkoolkat’s 2022 release Ushukela ETiyeni album as well as Kid X’s Father of Zen. She has recently graced stages such as #RoadToAfrochella, among acclaimed artists such as Focalistic, Daliwonga, Gyackie and Young Stunna, an activation of world renowned annual Music Festival Afrochella happening in Ghana.
In addition to singing and writing her music, she produces most of her music, a legacy of her time at the Academy of Sound Engineering. Most notably, her participation in 5FM’s 5Live online-streamed performance of Desmond and the Tutus. Her responsibilities included rigging the multi camera setup as well as the live vision mixing of the performance. She’s gone on to fulfil similar roles for the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, The Gender Mainstreaming Awards, and more. As an actress, she’s acted on the Netflix production Justice Served, BBC Family production of Quarx. Showmax’s short film, Pretty’s Daughter, and scored roles on shows like Generations The Legacy and Ngempela. Throughout her career, Nirvana Nokwe has committed to telling stories and translating them through audio-visual mediums. It is for this reason that events like One Night In Nirvana, a collaborative concert experience with Curiocity, became a milestone for her in 2019. Emphasising the importance of experiencing euphoria through music by engaging all sensory points, Nirvana hosted and produced the show in Maboneng as to cultivate a personal and intimate relationship with people who enjoyed her music. In conjunction with creating a her country’s first Models Guild, she plans to utilise the NFT space, to create formidable ecosystems and platforms for the advocacy of the evolution of model rights and presence.
Nirvana Nokwe-Mseleku stars as leading lady Sihle Biyela in her break out role on the internationally acclaimed Showmax Original ‘Outlaws’. as well as the rivetting crime thriller ‘‘Red Ink’ as BusiMhlongo. Nirvana is also started as A$AP Rocky’s mother in the groundbreaking music video ‘GANGSTA’ by the Free Nationals, A$AP Rocky & Anderson Paak.
For bookings or more information on Nirvana, please get in contact with an agent at OSM Talent.
