Louise Smit

Ms Louise Smit became well known for her very successful television productions such as Wielie Walie, Haas Das se Nuuskas, Pumpkin Patch, Kideo, Mina Moo and many more since television was first introduced in South Africa in 1976. She also created programming in isiXhosa, Sesotho, Sepedi sa Lebowa, Setswana, and of course, English. During her career she produced more than 6000 programs in 7 languages and is credited as an author and producer responsible for creating the biggest number of original characters in the world! She was also one of the first producers to create programming in African languages in South Africa and to introduce black and coloured actors in the shows. Louise owned her own production studio and is a celebrated playwright for many children’s productions to tour the country. Her first children’s book was published by Human & Rousseau in 1977. To date, she is the author of more than 35 children’s books. Louise received local and international acclaim for her work. She was awarded three Artes Awards, the Star Tonight Award, Prix Jeunesse and The Tokyo Prize. The picture book, Karel Kraai se kitaar, was shortlisted for the M.E.R Children’s Book Prize in 2018 and the popular publication Bennie Boekwurm se tonnelhuisie was awarded an ATKV Award in 2019. Louise recently relocated to Germany to be closer to her daughter and grandchild. She will celebrate her 80th birthday next year and is still actively writing and creating stories for children.