Hope Mbhele stans Solange, raps along to Kendrick Lamar, and hypes up Musa Keys.

I quietly observe this when the high-spirited supernova rocks up for her shoot in funky orange-hued braids that match her bubbly disposition.

Her requested music playlist while modelling new season collections from top South African designers is a further induction into her world.

Her charisma does the talking in each look she slips into — whether it’s transforming into a celestial goddess in David Tlale, a gothic hellcat in sculptural Black Coffee, or a Victorian ingénue in Amanda Laird Cherry.

Before having a heart-to-heart with Mbhele, three things hit me like a ray of sunshine. Firstly, Mbhele blossoms like a bright sunflower while music plays — no wonder she found a career in radio.

She’s the biggest Solange fan and sings along to almost her entire catalogue. “I’m channelling Solange,” she says in-between outfit changes. That’s if she’s not spitting out lyrics for K-Dot’s Humble. “I'm so f*cken’ sick and tired of the Photoshop, show me somethin’ natural like afro on Richard Pryor,” she raps and dives into the camera.

Secondly, Mbhele mentions that she has severe stomach ulcers when offered Chicken Licken hot wings for lunch. And, weirdly, she doesn’t like chocolate — this becomes apparent when she asks for a plain rather than a chocolate croissant. Mbhele digresses before I get a chance to interrogate her about this (I mean, who doesn’t like chocolate?).

Lastly, she prefers sneakers to heels, any day. She makes this confession after begging the stylist to take off the towering platforms she models immediately after the camera stops flashing. “I wear heels to red-carpet events and that’s it. I’m a sneaker girl,” she says.

But when we finally have our sit-down at the end of the day, one thing becomes clear: Mbhele has done much more than the average 26-year-old.

Born in Mtwalume, on the south coast of KZN, Mbhele is the eldest of four kids (and the only girl). She was raised in a taxi family and a Christian home.

After matric in 2014 she moved to New York. For the next year and half in the Big Apple she held a number of steady jobs, ranging from au pair to paralegal, and her hustle spirit was born.

Although she returned home to complete a degree in business administration, Mbhele has known from as young as six that she belongs in front of the camera. Her mom, Sissy Dlamini (then Bhengu), had a slot on Radio Sunny South in Port Shepstone. Mbhele would shadow her and even ended up doing kids’ shows on Ukhozi FM.

“My mom used to force me to wake up in the morning and sit with her while she was on radio. She is my biggest supporter and always made sure I went to auditions as a kid,” Mbhele remembers.

“She believed in me so much and could see that being in the public eye was something I enjoyed. From singing to dancing and doing drama, I was always that kid.

“There was a time in my life when I was working in retail because I thought showbiz wasn’t happening for me and I had invested so much. I worked for like, a year, before I was hired at Gagasi FM. Folding clothes in retail is not easy, but all of that builds you.”

Mbhele’s winning year kicked off in April when she scored a weekend slot on Metro FM. She is now the host of The Morning Shake Up with Hope Mbhele airing weekends between 3am and 6am.

“I was on Gagasi for almost five years. I was on the Kings’ Drive. I started as a social-media producer and SPHEctacula used to put me on air. Sphe and DJ Naves were amazing, they taught me so much on the desk. DJ Sonic also taught me stuff; I did graveyard with him and I just built myself until I began to do the Saturday breakfast show,” Mbhele says.

Her profile was raised by hit Sunday-night TV drama Umkhokha, depicting two families fighting over a church. She played the role of Mabusi opposite Nkosinathi “Nay Maps” Maphalala, Deli Malinga, Sthandiwe Kgoroge, and Linda Sokhulu. The second season is one of the most anticipated TV shows of 2023. Thanks to its success, the show has received a lengthy order and will return to Mzansi Magic as a daily drama, replacing DiepCity when it concludes in March.

Before the TV drama, Mbhele had acted in two movies. She starred in the Minnie Dlamini Jones-produced Goodbye Gogo and No Love Lost opposite Pallance Dladla, Zola Nombona, and Lungile Radu.

After Umkhokha, she scored a short-lived stint earlier in the year on South Africa’s most-watched show, Uzalo. Mbhele played Amahle Sishi, a lesbian love interest of resident cop Lilly Madongwe (Noxolo Mathula).

“It was a beautiful story about being lesbian in an African community like KwaMashu. I enjoyed playing that character and it was out of my comfort zone,” Mbhele says. “Noxolo and I had coaching lessons and counselling. It helped a lot having to understand that these are people’s lives and they sometimes get killed based on whom they choose to love. Portraying those characters was serious for us.”

Next, she has been booked for the mysterious role of Baleka in the upcoming series Shaka Ilembe, although she is tight-lipped about what the character is about.

“She’s so different from all the other characters, because the others existed in history and Baleka doesn’t. It’s a character that was invented and I had more freedom to play with a person who wasn’t in the books of history, but we knew [someone like her] existed because there were traditional healers back then,” Mbhele teases.

After years of auditioning to be a VJ on MTV Base and being rejected more than four times, in April she received a surprise call, offering her the job she had always dreamed of. But Mbhele says that she has since left the channel, citing a schedule clash as the reason. She has a long history of auditioning for presenting gigs with no luck, dating back to when she was 16 years old. Although she jokes about it now, it was no laughing matter at the time.

“I auditioned so much that when casting directors saw me, they went, ‘Hope, you are back again this year.’ When you have been auditioning for 10 years and nothing happens you begin to question if you were meant to do this,” she says.

But all of that is behind her now. She hosted the blue carpet for the DStv Mzansi Viewers’ Choice Awards with Pamela Mtanga and Smash Afrika in June, and was nominated for Favourite Rising Star on the night, losing out to The Wife actor and former SMan frontman Kwenzo Ngcobo. I remember Mbhele giving Ngcobo a huge hug when he was announced as the winner.

“My boy got it; we are from the same hood. I’ve known Kwenzo since I was folding clothes at Gateway and he was a bartender. His success is my success,” Mbhele says.

She is excited about what she has lined up next year, including the premiere of Shaka Ilembe and the second seasons of Umkhokha and Issa Vibe (SABC 1 music show), but her biggest love remains radio. “I will never stop radio — maybe when I’m older,” she quips.