For those who did not know, the Skeem Saam’s ‘Leeto’, real name Eric Macheru was actually a soccer player and played for Ajax Cape Town after winning the Soccer Kings competition in 2005.

Before coming into the acting scene, Macheru was a professional soccer player but his career fell short after getting an injury.

“I had an injury that could not heal and I had to stop playing.

“But there were also a lot of stories that came up about me but I do not want to talk about them,” said Macheru.

After jumping onto the acting bandwagon, Macheru equipped himself with a degree in film.

Aiming to do more than just read a written script in front of a camera, Eric Macheru is currently busy studying multimedia at AFDA.

He says he decided to add multimedia to his film degree as it will help him move into his passion which is advertising and communication.

“I want to jump into advertising, like the creative space of it including copywriting and conceptualising.

“So I just want to study and have at least a basic know how of the industry,” said Macheru.

He said that the he did not let the nomination into the top six sexiest males in Mzansi get to his head.

“It is humbling that these things happen when you are just sitting at home and people tell you that you are nominated.

“It’s not something that goes to my head because obviously it is not a skill, it’s not talent. It means a lot that people think I am sexy,” said Macheru.

He said that being nominated as Sowetan LIVE’s Mzansi’s sexiest came as a surprise because he is just a simple guy and has not even thought about doing things that make him sexy.

“I’m just a guy’s guy, in my room there’s just lotion, roll-on and zambuk, that’s it.”

He says that he did not expect to win and thinks that Pearl Modiadie and Nkululeko deserved the titles.

He said that he is happy at Skeem Saam and the primetime slot they were given after Generations ran out of episode was great because they were able to attract 8 million viewers.

“The support is out of this world and people love it. So far so good for the show.