An incandescent star: Ayakha Ntunja

Ayakha Ntunja makes acting looks easy, as though you, the viewer, could do it too — but you can’t.  Her girl-next-door portrayal of high-schooler Amo in Youngins is subtle and natural, nuanced and emotionally satisfying.

The breakout star, one of the most exciting new faces on TV, has embodied the lead character with delicacy, stillness, and restraint. The brilliance of her acting is that it’s all in her eyes — before she even opens her mouth she’s captured the many layers of Amo’s emotions.

Hers is more of an internal approach to acting, rather than one of grand gestures and fierce melodrama. While most of the big performers around Amo sink their teeth into the script, Ntunja has achieved the not-so-easy task of grounding the show in reality and emerged as the heart of Youngins.

Stepping on the set of her SMag cover shoot, Ntunja is just as easy-going and soft-spoken in real life. While her co-stars Lebohang Lephatsoana (Tumelo) and Kealeboga Masango (Buhle) immediately light up the room, Ntunja blends into the background, finding a sofa in a corner and observing the room from a short distance.

When I finally get to chat with her up-close, I learn that Ntunja might appear graceful and smooth, much like the proverbial swan, but underneath there is remarkable footwork. That has been the secret to bringing Amo to life — the timid new girl from a rural area — and shaking things up at fictional boarding school Olifantsfontein High.

Through flashbacks, viewers discover her violent childhood, which saw her father serving a prison sentence after killing her mother in a GBV case.

“People always say, ‘You are such a soft actor. Your face is always the only thing that speaks.’ I think it’s because of the roles I’ve played. I always try to minimise before I jump too big into it,” she agrees.

“You always need to understand what your character is about and you don’t only do it for the audience. A lot of the time you get lost in it because you see the audience wanting big things and then you want to do big things, so that they can talk about it.

"When I go into roles that allow me to have a big personality, it will pick up. I’m only warming up. I didn’t look for a character that was already on TV. I did a lot of writing for her. I would write to her because we had diaries when we started the show. That’s how I worked into it. It’s so subtle and easy. I like that about Amo.” 

Amo has often served as the moral compass of the YA show on Showmax, especially in the main plot of the first season. When Amo uncovers principal Mthembu’s (Loyiso Macdonald) predatory behaviour towards female students, she takes it upon herself to expose him, going to great lengths and roping in her friends. 

 “We are similar in the sense that we stand for that we believe in,” she observes. However, Amo talks so much. I sit there thinking, ‘Don’t enter that drama, just walk away from it.’ I will mind my own business. I can sit in a room and just keep quiet.”

Her early success in acting is not something that the 21-year-old actor takes lightly. She matriculated in 2021 and her first encounter with the spotlight came last year when she was cast in MTV Shuga: Down South; before then she had starred in short films.  

“I didn’t know what to expect [with Youngins]. You always anticipate things, but you never know how big it’s going to be,” she says. “The way people are loving it is amazing. Everyone feels like it’s so real and authentic to the high-school experience. I learnt a lot from Shuga, which prepared me for this. Now I’m trending every week and everyone is engaging in the story. Shuga was calmer and more edutainment.”

The middle child of three, Ntunja was born in Gqeberha. After moving to Joburg, she enrolled at the National School of the Arts (NSA), where she harnessed her acting skills. A career in the arts was always the way for Ntunja, although she also notes she was academically strong.

“It started with sports — I did a lot of swimming. Then I did dance for the longest time and I thought I was going to be a dancer,” she says. “I was ready to go to an academy in London and just dance. But when I went to theatre in grade 8, it switched. It felt so good and in grade 10 I made the decision to go for the NSA. People would be surprised to learn that I’m a space nerd. I love all things that have to do with science. That is my kind of fun. I know everything there’s to know.”  

Ntunja teases that she has already booked her next project, which is a complete departure from Amo. She reiterates that she’s not about to rest on her laurels.  

“It doesn’t come easy — you need to remember that it might look amazing right now, but there is always work to be done,” she says. “I’m not saying don’t take pride and joy in your work. Like, celebrate yourself, I think that’s something I haven’t done in a while. But also, just know that there is always more to be done. My mind is always on the next project and how am I going to kill it.”