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01 March 2021 | Story Rulanzen Martin | Photo Supplied
Carel Nel will star in the upcoming fantasy horror movie, Gaia.

He has been in more than 40 international and national films, and has worked with the likes of Ridley Scott and Deon Opperman. These are just some of the achievements that Carel Nel, alumnus of the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of the Free State (UFS), has mastered in his young career. For him, it is all about hard work, patience, and believing in yourself. 

Nel says the time he spent studying drama at the UFS moulded him into the excellent actor he is today. During his undergraduate study, he was fortunate to be mentored by well-known actor, Gerben Kamper, theatre maestro, Prof Nico Luwes, and drama lecturer, Steph Brink. “They gave me the foundation I needed to go out into the real world and to make my dream of being a full-time actor a reality. I will always be grateful to them,” Nel says. 

In 2016 and 2017, he won the KykNet Silwerskerm Festival Best Actor award, and has won and been nominated for numerous film and theatre awards. 

Latest movie to premiere at SXSW film festival 

Nel’s latest role is that of Barend in the Jaco Bouwer fantasy horror film Gaia. The film will have its world premiere at the SXSW film festival on 16 March 2021 in Austin, Texas. “He (Barend) is a survivalist who turned his back on society more than a decade ago, a former academic who has willingly embraced a Neolithic lifestyle,” Nel says. 

There was uncertainty about the film, as production got suspended on the seventh day of filming due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Filming of Gaia resumed in late June 2020. “This is why we are extremely proud that Gaia will have its world premiere at the SXSW film festival,” says Nel.  

Apart from all his noteworthy projects, he was very fortunate to have worked with Ridley Scott on ‘Raised by wolves.’  “I played Karl, the android, and had to go through about five hours of makeup and prosthetics every day, and while shooting, was suspended by chains from the set. My other notable project was working in the remake of the 1977 classic, Roots.

            

Portraying historical figures ‘is daunting’ 

He has an uncanny resemblance to Abraham Lincoln and actually had the opportunity to play Lincoln in the History Channel mini-series, Grant. He had to do some research in preparation for his role because there is no video or audio recording of Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln had a very distinct voice and Nel learned that the voice of Daniel Day-Lewis, the British actor who played Lincoln in the 2012 biopic ‘Lincoln ’, is as historically correct as possible. “I therefore used his voice almost as a historical reference for mine; it’s always very daunting when you play a historical or actual person,” Nel says. 

In 2017, he had the opportunity to play Prof Christiaan Barnard in Hartstog, a Deon Opperman film about the first heart transplant in South Africa . 

Carel Nel has become a well-known face on South African television and on the international big screen and he believes that a “good actor tells the truth and understands that it’s not about him/her or they, but about the story they are telling”. It is thus evident that Carel Nel is a ‘Hollywood’ A-lister to be.

 

Watch the Gaia movie trailer here:

News Archive

UFS in forefront with ASGI-SA initiative
2006-05-10

At the conceptualisation colloquium and stakeholder dialogue were from the left Dr Aldo Stroebel (senior researcher at the UFS Research Development Directorate), Dr Edith Vries (acting Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Development Trust) and Prof Frans Swanepoel (Director: UFS Research Development Directorate).

UFS in forefront with ASGI-SA initiative

Two staff members of the University of the Free State (UFS) have been appointed as members of the advisory board of the national programme for the creation of small enterprises and jobs in the second economy.  This programme forms part of government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative of South Africa (ASGI-SA).

Prof Frans Swanepoel, Director of the UFS Research Development Directorate and Dr Aldo Stroebel, senior researcher at the UFS Research Development Directorate, are working with a team of experts from the UFS on a draft implementation strategy for the national programme.  Both Prof Swanepoel and Dr Stroebel are also associated to the UFS Centre for Sustainable Agriculture.
 
“The strategy is being developed in collaboration with institutions like the Independent Development Trust, the Department of Agriculture, the National Development Agency and the Department of Trade and Industry,” says Prof  Swanepoel.  

The other team members of the UFS are Prof Basie Wessels, Director of the  Mangaung-University Community Partnership Programme (MUCPP) and Mr  Benedict Mokoena, project manager at the MUCPP.

Dr Stroebel was also member of the organising committee of a conceptualisation colloquium and stakeholder dialogue that was recently presented in Johannesburg.  The conference was attended by more than 400 delegates from government departments, higher-education institutions and civil society, including Dr Kobus Laubscher, member of the UFS Council.

The conference was facilitated by Ms Vuyo Mahlati, previously from the WK Kellogg Foundation’s Africa programme and opened by Ms Thoko Didiza, Minister of Agriculture and Land Affairs.   

“The colloquium formed the basis of an induction workshop during which a group of 150 individuals (50 teams of three) from all nine provinces, identified to initiate the implementation of the national programme, was trained and orientated towards an induction manual in collaboration with Hand-in-Hand, an Indian counterpart,” says Prof Swanepoel.

Dr Stroebel and Mr Benedict Mokoena formed part of the team to conceptualise and finalise this training manual.  The induction training includes a case study of a successful community self-help partnership model, namely the MUCPP at the UFS. Prof Wessels and Mr Mokoena are both playing a leading role in the further development of subsequent training initiatives throughout South Africa, in partnership with the relevant provincial departments.

“The involvement of the UFS in the programme is a compliment to us.  It reflects the value government sees in the use of academics and experts in the management of the ASGI-SA initiative.  It is also an indication of one of the aims of the UFS to play a role in South Africa and Africa and in the transformation and change that is taking place in our country,” says Prof Swanepoel.  

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel:   (051) 401-2584
Cell:  083 645 2454
E-mail:  loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
10 May 2006

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