Bridget Masinga is a woman of many talents. A Miss South Africa runner-up in 2002, she is a popular TV actor, producer, radio host, social media personality, fashion fundi, MC and public speaker. She is also in the final year of study towards a BA in Politics and Development through UNISA.
About
Most recently, thousands tuned in to her daily radio show The B-Side with Bridget Masinga on Kaya FM, the home of the Afropolitan, where she made a name for herself as a champion of arts and culture in South Africa.
Bridget’s exciting new venture is the launch of an online platform to promote South African arts and culture. Bridget intends to use this to raise awareness of all of the arts, to address issues like arts education and funding, and to advocate for arts development As a fervent advocate for the extraordinary range of talent in the country, there could be no one better to carry this very important torch forward into a new decade.
Bridget’s passion for media and arts has been the golden thread that can be picked up across her career. Some of the recent highlights include broadcasting her show from the New York City Winter Jazzfest, one of the top jazz festivals in the world. This came soon after nabbing an exclusive interview with Naomi Campbell and the founder of the Global Citizen movement, Hugh Evans, in the run-up to the Global Citizen Festival: Mandela 100.
Her star as a media personality began rising in 2005 when, as the host of The Elevator, a pre-breakfast show on happening youth station YFM 99.2, her unique style of radio chatter earned her a dedicated following. In 2006, she hit the small screen in the country’s most-watched and longest-running TV drama, Generations, playing the role of the controversial and challenging Zoe. In 2007, she also played the role of ‘rich girl’, Theresa Nyawose in the SABC 1 drama series, Bay of Plenty.
Many TV gigs followed, with Bridget moving on to host the popular music programmes, Selekta and Beatlab, on GO! before becoming the co-presenter of M-Net’s popular quiz show, Temptations SA. Later she replaced Nicole Fox on The Movie Show and also hosted the first two seasons of the Mzanzi Magic reality series, The Road to Miss South Africa. And in 2015, she was one of the ten celebrity contestants on the eighth season of Strictly Come Dancing, partnering with professional dancer, Dennis Sifiso Maseko.
Since then her main beat has been radio, with her becoming the host of Jacaranda FM’s weekly mid-morning show before moving on to Kaya FM. At Kaya, she was nominated for the Liberty Radio Awards for her initial show, Late Nights with Bridget Masinga, before taking over the primetime midday slot, which focused on arts, culture and lifestyle.
She also finds time in her busy schedule to MC top events, which have included the Art and Culture Awards (2017, 2018 and 2019), the DStv Delicious Fest (2017 and 2018), the BRICS Women’s Summit (2018), the Mbokodo Awards (2018), the Business and Arts South Africa Awards (2018) and the Nedbank Retail Awards (2019), among many others.