Thembinkosi Mthembu Leads An Impressive Cast Of Showmax’s New Series, Adulting

Showmax has just dropped the first trailer for Adulting, an eight-part 18SN drama premiering on 20 March 2023, with new episodes every Monday.

Adulting is the first Showmax Original from Tshedza Pictures, the production company behind the International Emmy-nominated telenovela The River and the SAFTA Best TV Drama winner The Republic. Tshedza Pictures’ co-founders Phathu Makwarela and Gwydion Beynon have won five Best Scriptwriting SAFTA awards in the last four years.

Set in Johannesburg, Adulting explores the parallel universes of four varsity friends. Their strong bond has held them together even as their journeys in life have taken them in very different directions. Theirs is the bromance of the decade.

Thembinkosi Mthembu stars as successful businessman Bonga, with Big Brother Mzansi Star Luthando BU Mthembu as toy-boy Vuyani, Thabiso Rammutsi as cheating family man Mpho, and Nhlanhla Kunene as hot-headed bad-boy Eric.

Also look out for the likes of SAFTA nominee Winnie Ntshaba and Sikelelwa Vuyeleni (Hope, House of Zwide) as Vuyani’s sugar mamma and Eric’s baby mamma respectively; Lungile Duma as Mpho’s wife; and Buhle Samuels and newcomer Londeka Shishi as Bonga’s love interests.

Jumping from amapiano clubs to G-Wagon showrooms and from bedrooms to boardrooms, this season also features Dr Fezile Mkhize, former Mr World South Africa; 2022 DSTV Mzansi Viewers’ Choice Best Actress nominee Dele Malinga; SAFTA nominee Lindani Nkosi ; and Comics’ Choice nominee Isaac Gampu. 2022 BET Best International Act nominee Major League DJz and 2022 Basadi Amapiano Artist of the Year Boohle have cameos, as do the likes of Mohale Motaung and photographer Austin Malema.

“We wanted to root the show in Joburg pop culture right now,” says MultiChoice Talent Factory graduate Thembalethu Mfebe (Legacy), who shares directing duties with Menga Nhlabathi (eHostela, Umkhokha).

There’s so much creative freedom in working with Showmax, who have broadened the landscape of what’s being made on South African TV. You haven’t seen anything like Adulting before.

Phathutshedzo Makwarela, Tshedza Pictures’ Executive Producer

Adulting is the first of two Showmax Originals from Tshedza this year. The second, Outlaws, is a cross-cultural love story of epic proportions, which plays out in the dangerous world of cattle theft syndicates, in the lawless land on the border between Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal. Outlaws is expected to premiere first on Showmax towards the end of 2023.