Thabo Wolfaardt received his Bachelor’s Degree in Literature and History from New York University.  During that time studied in Italy and received a Dean’s Research Grant to make a documentary in Khayalitsha, South Africa.  Before entering film school, Thabo spent three years in the professional world, working as a paralegal, a freelance photographer, videographer, and as a teacher.

Thabo was accepted into the highly competitive Graduate Film Directing Program at UCLA in 2003.  During his time there, Thabo shot three short films, a television pilot, three documentaries, and wrote a feature screenplay.  He received the Motion Picture Association of America Award and the Carl David Memorial Fellowship for his work on The Recorder – a narrative short that premiered in 2005.  Following that, Thabo received the prestigious Collin Higgins Film Director’s Screenplay Award to make his thesis film, Joburg, in South Africa.

For his documentary, South Africa’s New Apartheid, Thabo received the award for Best Documentary at the UCLA Film Festival in June 2006 in addition to the Mary Pickford Award.  In February 2007, Thabo received a Multicultural Motion Picture Association of America Diversity Award at a Pre-Oscar luncheon.  More recently, Joburg was awarded a post-production grant from the Caucus Foundation for Television Writers, Producers, and Directors.

Additionally, Thabo’s work as a photographer and cinematographer have been used in commercials and have appeared in Rolling Stone magazine, Daily News, Gallery 128 in New York, and the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival.

Thabo is a native of South Africa and witnessed the end of Apartheid while still a high school student in Cape Town.