"Hi I'm Magpie, like the bird..." says a distorted voice through a small hole in a wall. A wall in Arkham, the Batman world's infamous mental hospital. Why do you care? Because this voice is not your average American actress but that of our very own Marié Botha.   

In a link up to New York, Gino gets to chat to Pretoria born actress Marié Botha who plays “Magpie” in The Penguin. A spin-off of The Batman franchise that focuses on ‘Oswald Cobb’ (The Penguin) and his rise as a villain, currently on Showmax.

Aided by her father, Marié left South Africa at the tender age of 18 to chase her dream. She studied acting at New York University’s famous Tisch School of the Arts. From there she enrolled in the masters programme at Yale School of Drama, as one of only 17 students in her class, selected from thousands.

In 2017, during her third year at Yale, Marié was cast in the very first production and workshop of “Slave Play” by Jeremy O’ Harris, playing the part of Alana.
It was a huge success and Jeremy took it to the New York Theater Workshop Off-Broadway, where it was met with wide acclaim and also sparked some backlash due to its controversial nature. It then went on to Broadway, where it was nominated for 12 Tony awards, which was a record at the time.

She has featured in Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions, indie films, commercial voice-over work and countless auditions. She also came back to South Africa in 2012 briefly to play in the TV series Erfsondes.

Having lived in New York for 14 years now, does Marié consider herself a New Yorker or South African? “It is lore that you have to have lived in New York for 11 years before you can call yourself a New Yorker, and I’ve done 14,” she explains.

Stlll, a Boeremeisie in Arkham- who'd a thought it?

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Produced by Ted Loukes and A10 Consulting
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Music by The_Mountain from Pixabay

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