After modelling the season’s hottest It-girl styles, Luyanda Zuma details a gruelling audition process to make the cut as Liyana, Shaka’s (Lemogang Tsipa) love interest in the much-anticipated second season of historical drama Shaka iLembe.

While she can crack a joke about it today, at the time it was no laughing matter. So much so that in the two weeks before her casting she couldn’t eat. The 23-year-old Miss SA finalist endured about seven callback auditions. It has all paid off, however, and when the Mzansi Magic series returns this Sunday she will make her mark as Liyana.

Interestingly, her friend, the singer Moneoa, first planted the idea in her head that she should audition for Shaka iLembe. Moneoa had experience working with Bomb Productions, having appeared in their other TV dramas The Road and Isibaya.

“When I got to the first audition I was overwhelmed. The night before I was reciting the one script, then woke up in the morning and changed my mind, while my audition was at 9am. I don’t know what I was thinking,” she says. “When I walked into the audition, I said one line and — blackout. They allowed me to start over and I got a callback. After my third callback my friend called me for help with a script and when I looked at it, it was the same one. So, I thought for sure it was not me. At my last callback, there were three of us remaining and I remember looking at this one actress who is stunning and thinking, ‘They will go with her.’”

Working with her acting heroes Tsipa, Sthandiwe Kgoroge, Mondli Makhoba, Nomzamo Mbatha, Thembinkosi Mthembu, Khabonina Qubeka, and Wiseman Mncube has been nothing short of magical. For Zuma, it’s a dream come true being directed by established filmmakers Angus Gibson, Zeno Petersen, and Adze Ugah, who have helmed iconic local shows such as Yizo Yizo, Isibaya and Gomora. Another astonishing detail is that Zuma didn’t immediately know after being cast that she would play such a pivotal role, although she admits that any part in the show would have done.

“When you audition for Shaka, it doesn’t specifically state which character you are auditioning for,” Zuma says. “So when I got there, I was greeted by Bongumusa Zungu [casting director and producer] and tried to get him to spill the beans, but he wouldn’t budge. When he introduced me to the wardrobe team, he said, ‘I’m not going to introduce her by her real name, I’m going to give you her character’s name.’ Even when he said ‘Liyana’, I was still in the dark about how big the character is, until they took me through her story.”

Zuma was cast on a Wednesday, went through wardrobe the same day and, within 48 hours, was filming her first scene with Mbatha, who plays Shaka’s mother, Queen Nandi. “I was overwhelmed, but at the same time felt at home,” she says. “The team is so welcoming, from the directors to the cast. But, obviously, because I’m so new there was that element of, I’ve seen them on TV before. The first scene I did was with Nomzamo and I don’t know how I got through that because I was so starstruck.”

Before Shaka iLembe, Zuma appeared in local TV shows Obstruction, Uzulu Nomhlaba, and Forever Yena. While not much is known about her character except for her serving under the former queen mother, Mthaniya (Kgoroge), and being Shaka’s love interest, in her character biography she is credited as being “the daughter of Mdlaka and sister to Nyembezi”.

“When she steps into the story, she steps in as a very naive girl, but very strong as well,” Zuma offers, without giving away spoilers. “She is not interested in marriage because she sees herself as the Mkabayi [Dawn Thandeka King] of her generation. She goes through so much that South Africa will just feel for her. Her story brings in a different element of Shaka. She changes the narrative about what we have always read, that Shaka is this strong soldier, unbreakable and dehumanised. Liyana’s character comes in to bring out his human side and vulnerability.”

Zuma sees being on the show as a full-circle moment. She remembers taking a tour of the Shaka iLembe set during a visit to the Cradle of Humankind when she was a Miss SA finalist in 2022. She felt like she was home. Zuma has again entered Miss SA this year.

“I was in a bad space in 2022; I was coming from a heavy relationship. People would watch Crown Chasers [Miss SA reality TV show] and be concerned about me because I was always crying,” she says. “Mentally, I was not there. I was in a space [where I] needed comfort more than competition. I learnt that you need to block out the noise and chase your dream. The one thing that was constantly on my mind cost me my dream.”

She credits Miss SA Teen 2011 Celeste Khumalo as her biggest inspiration for entering beauty pageants.

“My brother was going crazy over her the night she won. I looked at her and thought we looked similar; she’s just as skinny as me,” Zuma says. “Then, when I started researching Miss SA and what it stood for with all its pillars, I realised I was the right fit.”

While she’s one of the most beautiful women in the world right now, growing up in Pietermaritzburg she didn’t fit in or connect with her feminine side.

“I was a tomboy and that energy came from the fact that I didn’t feel beautiful,” she says. “I looked like my dad and puberty had not kicked in yet, so I had very masculine features. I wasn’t deemed feminine enough because puberty hit later and all my friends started to get their boobs; I didn’t get that until later in high school.”

In grade 9 she fell in love with drama. She later studied live performance at Afda and never looked back. “In my second year, my lecturer wanted to kick me out of my live-performance class because she felt I had a director’s eye,” she says. “But I insisted that I wanted to learn performance. I respect the craft so much — I would like others to respect us for studying it too.”