Louise Smit - Biography

Biography

When Louise Smit thinks of her childhood in Paarl, the tedious practising of scales on the piano springs to her mind. Her father, an ardent pianist, wanted to make virtuosi of all his children. But Louise would rather have liked to dance on top of the piano. She felt restricted by the eight octaves.

Bedtime was story time. Her mother, a teacher and animated storyteller, kept the six children spellbound with her amazing stories.

After happy schooldays at La Rochelle Girls' High, she studied Drama at the University of Stellenbosch. She then did charitable work in Malawi, Central Africa, for four years. She performed indigenous folktales with the children in the rural areas. This led to weekly children's radio programmes in the Chicewa - language.

Returning to South Africa, she joined the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg as puppeteer before accepting the position as programme director at the SABC - TV division. Her first programmes, Haas Das se Nuuskas (a rabbit newsreader wearing flashy ties) and Wielie Walie, were national hits. She also created and directed programmes in isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sotho, Pedi, SetTswana and English.

In 1980 she launched her own television studio, Kinnor Studios in Johannesburg where her programmes were produced under Louise Smit Productions. It was sold to Red Pepper Productions twenty years later after retiring from television.

She loves cooking while Mozart's music loudly fills the house. Reading is a passion. She is married, currently lives in Germany and has a daughter. She now writes full time.

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