Good girl gone bad: Kealeboga Masango

In May 2007, Rihanna released her third studio album Good Girl Gone Bad, a distinct career shift for the then 19-year-old Barbadian superstar.

The smash hit Umbrella catapult her into superstardom and introduced Bad Gal Riri, her famous Instagram handle.  Her first two albums, Music of the Sun and A Girl Like Me, had presented an image of an innocent goody two shoes. In a departure in style as well as sound, Rihanna cut her hair into an edgy bob.

When she later sang on her fifth album, Loud, in 2010, “I may be bad, but I’m perfectly good at it,” she was pitch perfect and on brand. To this day, Good Girl Gone Bad is definitive of the artist Rihanna is. It has also served as a great case study of how the world loves a career reinvention, especially when it’s on the dark and rebellious side.

Rewind to October 2002, when starlet Kealeboga Masango was born — she would have been about five years old when Good Girl Gone Bad dropped. Then fast-forward to 2018, when the 16-year-old Masango was cast in soapie Rhythm City.

The role of sweet and naive Zinhle Ngobese would keep her busy until she matriculated, with the show eventually airing its last episode in 2021. While Masango was booked and busy afterwards, she notes that most of her roles didn’t offer much range. Then, last year, just after her 21st birthday, all of that changed.

Masango got the Rihanna Good Girl Gone Bad treatment when she scored the role of Buhle in Youngins.  Buhle is a classic queen bee in high school — bratty, popular, and mean. She puts the trouble in troublemaker.

When viewers met her in episode one in February, “Ma 2K mara!” was a fitting response to some of her jaw-dropping antics. The head girl and pastor’s kid was sneaking her boyfriend Khaya (Toka Mtabane) out of her room and bragging about her Michael Kors backpack. In episode six, she proved she was sex positive when she was caught with a pink vibrator in a funny scene featuring the always-charming Sannah Mchunu as the no-nonsense Matron Lulu.

“I’m playing a different role from what I’ve played before. She is that It-girl who is sure of herself,” Masango says. “It has been so much fun and it’s interesting because there are so many layers to her, whereas, with the other roles, there were layers but it was always the good girl.

Here I’m just that bad girl.”  A day after the SMag cover shoot, it’s announced that, after 45 episodes, the show is returning for a second season.

It’s already in production, and Masango reveals that the current scenes being filmed are some of her favourites — and among the most challenging, as they unpack more of Buhle’s backstory.

“Prior to shooting I thought we were different,” she confesses. “But when I sat down with her and tried to understand her, I got to delve deeper into her reasons for doing certain things. Buhle puts a lot of pressure on herself, which I also do. I want to make sure I’m the best and she does too, although on another level. So, initially, I thought she was a mean girl with no heart. But she has a big heart and she cares. I can’t wait for the viewers to see more of her growth because at the moment it’s just the build-up stage.”  

From as early as three years old, Masango was starring in TV commercials and participating in beauty pageants. But other than mimicking her favourite shows in front of the mirror, she never had any acting training or experience.

Then she was plucked out of obscurity when she was cast in Rhythm City and found herself sharing the screen and exchanging dialogue with industry titans Linda Sokhulu, Nompilo Gwala, and the late Mncedisi Shabangu.

"It was definitely overwhelming,” she admits. “It was my first gig in acting and it was a lot. I remember the first day on set I was shaking and I kept apologising. There was a lot of pressure, working with all these recognised and respected actors.” 

That show opened many doors for her, landing her supporting roles in Indoda Must, Ayeye: Stripped, The River, and Stout. She’s so busy at the moment that she’s had to put her BCom law degree on hold.

“There is a lot of pressure [being on Youngins]. Just from getting to know the rest of the cast, we all are driven, passionate individuals. We all want to do well for ourselves. But it’s also amazing because we are doing something we love and it shows onscreen.”