Tatenda Mbudzi

Mbudzi

Tatenda Mbudzi is a Zimbabwean world-class filmmaker: an amalgam of writer, actor, director and producer who is committed to telling stories from unseen points of view. This commitment earned him the honour of presenting Oscar statuettes at the 86th Academy Awards™ where he was showcased as The Future of Film in front of a global audience upwards of 4 billion people. Tatenda made the first ever Zimbabwean teen movie titled “Zim High” which was released sometime in 2016.^[1] He is the first Zimbabwean to set foot on stage at the Oscars, where he was presented live on ABC as “The Future of Film” (Academy Awards, ABC 2013)

Background

Tatenda is a writer, director, actor, comedian and visual artist who grew up in Zimbabwe. He lived in the UK from age 3 to 5, Zimbabwe from 6 to 18, and America from age 18 to 26. He is legally classified as an Alien of Extraordinary Ability in the United States. Hailing from Zimbabwe, Tatenda Mbudzi fell in love with film & television as a result of his grandmother’s traditional folktales – NGANO. He followed those story threads all the way to Hollywood.

He creates characters trapped between worlds, and shows the perspective of the “other”. His point of view comes from having lived through postcolonial environments. He loves using grounded genre to investigate relationships and power dynamics between people, histories and cultures. He writes features, drama shows, and dark comedy. He loves anime and manga. He grew up in a cult (they don’t call it that, but that’s what it is).

Career

He worked directly for the Chairman of UNIVERSAL PICTURES, and worked on franchises such as FAST & FURIOUS; and with companies like Sony Pictures, Anonymous Content and Focus Features. He has worked at 20th CENTURY FOX, in publicity, and in 2014 worked in series development at Microsoft.

He has produced multiple short films, and two feature length films for James Franco, and Franco’s company Rabbit Bandini Pictures. He is a graduate of the esteemed UCLA Graduate Producers Program, an HBO Digital Fellow, and the recipient of a Fred Rogers, Emmy Foundation Grant.

ZIM HIGH is Zim’s prestigious and violent fictional high school. An institution espousing British Post-Colonial excellence. Beneath its proper covering however is a violent Darwinian playpen of pure juvenile cruelty. This is a truly Dark teen comedy. Not just because of the complexion of the characters. No. This is the First African Teen &Young Adult film of all time. There is no magical device, and no moral compass to protect our “hero” from the harsh reality of going to high school in Africa, where racial tension and economic instability reign supreme.

TATENDA: the main character a scrawny 17-year-old anime loving bowl of intelligent fear, who desperately and blindly wants to become – a PREFECT (an all-powerful student leader) to win scholarships to study anime in Japan; but his chances are dashed when he is framed in an ancient ZIM HIGH bullying tradition – THE GAUNTLET – in which a student almost dies – out of options he is forced to turn to a rebellious Aboriginal Australian new kid for help with his PREFECT campaign. This film is about holding onto your dreams, and standing up for yourself before it’s too late.

He is the first Zimbabwean to set foot on stage at the Oscars, where he was presented live on ABC as “The Future of Film” (Academy Awards, ABC 2013). He also won Best Director at the 2017 Zimbabwe International Film Festival for the dark comedy mockumentary ZIM HIGH, the First African Teen Movie Ever, that isn’t about AIDS, Ebola and Child Soldiers. ZIM HIGH also won a 120K valued grand prize at the Lonely Seal International Film Festival in Arlington Massachusetts.

In December of 2017, he performed his first ever one man comedy special: AFRICAN ALIEN, exploring what it’s like to be a non-resident alien with intergalactic psychological issues in North America. He recently opened for Maria Bamford and performs across the United States.