Natasha Heschelle
Natasha Heschelle is a Zimbabwean born-Canadian actress, writer and producer. She is best known for writing her own stuff to create work for herself. Her best known production is Zahara: The Return (2020), AKA The Black Vampire Show, where she plays Helen Harris.
Background
Natasha Chipo Mutungwazi, known professionally as Natasha Heschélle, is an upcoming Canadian actress. From a very young age, she showed great enthusiasm and talent for the arts: Dance, Modelling, Music and Acting. She performed in numerous talent shows as a child. At the age of seven, Natasha danced to Destiny's child's "lose my breath" in a talent show, where she won first place, beating sixteen and seventeen year old's. Shortly after, Natasha was called to be an entertainer in the Miss Zimbabwe modeling contest in 2006.[1]
Natasha was born in Zimbabwe, but immigrated to Paris, France by herself at the age 16 to pursue acting while waiting for her Canada permanent resident visa to be processed. However, things didn’t turn out as expected in Paris, and Natasha found herself homeless for several days, before meeting a catholic priest who took her to a shelter. A few months after that, Natasha’s visa was approved, and she moved to Canada to live with her mother Marisa Moyo, a registered nurse and businesswoman, and her younger brother Tanaka. Natasha’s parents separated when she was only 6 years old.
As a young girl, Natasha enjoyed arts, particularly dancing and modelling. However, after being told that she would not make a living as an entertainer because of lack of opportunities, Natasha studied sciences, with the hope of being a doctor like her uncle Elias one day. But when she realized that she wanted to be an actress more than anything, she decided to leave Zimbabwe, in search of better opportunities in the entertainment industry. Natasha currently lives in Oakville, Canada and she is planning on moving to Los Angeles in the future. She speaks English, Ndebele and a little bit of Shona.
Education
Natasha attended Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology to study the Acting for Camera and Voice program.
Career
She's been booking mostly commercials, and has stated that although it pays the bills, it's not what she wants to do. To her, it's never been about the money, it's always been about passion. She wants to be in movies and TV shows (especially supernatural-romance shows), which inspired her to create the series Zahara: The Return. The story explores the history of slavery and racism, and the tensions between a white supernatural world and a supernatural world of colour as an ancient black Druid rekindles her forbidden love with the son of her former master. The cast includes Curtis Morgan, Dennis Nimoh, Hannah Scott, Justine Christensen, Anna Nadtotchii and Christine L. Nguyen and Heschélle who plays the role of Helen Harris.[2]
Her first acting role was as Miriam Bakosi in the movie The Poet Professor which never premiered due to the producer facing legal threats after refusing to pay the cast and crew, claiming to be waiting for funds from a bank in Tanzania. She later became known for producing the upcoming Prime Video series Zahara: The Return, and playing the lead character, Helen Harris. Heschélle also appeared in several short films, and has done several commercials for companies like President’s Choice Financial, Holiday Inn, McCafe and Safeway, to name a few.[3]
Currently own an entertainment company called Heschélle entertainment, and her goal is to grow it to be a big movie production and distribution company. She is working hard on making this happen.
Awards
Her single was released on April 10, 2020 and have already won 3 Gold Movie Awards. Have also been selected to screen at one of the biggest web series festivals in Canada called Toronto Webfest.[4]
Social Life
Natasha loves sports, especially Football, Rugby and Cricket. Her favorite teams are Brazil (football), Springboks (rugby) and Proteas (Cricket). Neymar Jr is her favorite athlete. If she wasn't an actress, she would want to be a cricket player.
Trivia
- Natasha credited herself as Natasha Heschélle because she was tired of people asking her how her last name (Mutungwazi) is pronounced. The name Heschelle was actually inspired by her favorite Cricket player Herschelle Gibbs (who plays for the Proteas). She just changed the name to make it sound more feminine.
- Natasha's dream was to be in The Vampire Diaries because you get, it's the best show she's ever watched.
- When she was young, she had the biggest crush on David Beckham.
- She writes stuff to create work for herself because the only roles she ever gets sent to audition for are the "black girl ghetto" roles and she always turns them down.
- She's always been obsessed with Michael Jackson, and believes that he is the absolute best thing that ever happened to the entertainment industry.
- She speaks fluent Ndebele.
- She performed in numerous talent shows ever since she was a child. At the age of seven, she danced to Destiny's Child's lose my breath in a dance competition, winning first place and beating 16 and 17 year old's.
Picture Gallery
