From dreaming big to nurturing the dreams of others, Lesego Vorster’s journey to telling Emmy-winning stories through animation gives us “great heart”.
South Africa (30 September 2025) – Lesego Vorster has an inspiring story to share, honouring historic moments within his own career and witnessing full-circle moments for others within the animation industry. It all started when he applied to be a student at Gobelins in Paris. What followed were several life-altering experiences that have created space for more South Africans to tap into international studies in France.
Lesego had always enjoyed the Gobelins YouTube channel, drawing inspiration and insight from the content, but he had no idea that it was a school. When he discovered the back story, it changed everything. He dived into research and found a Summer School Programme, which he immediately applied for.
He managed to find funding for the programme through the National Video and Film Foundation to travel to Paris, and the rest is history. Lesego became the first South African student to attend Gobelins.
When the International Masters Course opened, Lesego was overjoyed to be accepted. He shares that it was a dream come true for him. But the Master’s Course came with a whole new funding challenge. It was here that the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) stepped in, aiding in Lesego’s dreams becoming a reality.
“The Audio-Visual Attache at the time, Frédéric Chambon, heard about this South African dude who got accepted into Gobelins’ first-ever International Masters Programme. He somehow found my e-mail address and invited me to lunch. He took it upon himself to help me secure all the funds and support I needed to be able to attend comfortably, so between IFAS, Campus France and NFVF, I was able to attend the Master’s and, not once, did I feel like the struggling African while I was there.”
Lesego credits this moment as a major part of his journey. These people, who had never met him, decided to support his dream.
The Master’s course was a humbling, yet profoundly uplifting experience. It was really challenging at first.
“Now, the course itself broke me. It simply broke me. Mainly, the first term taught me so much about unlearning, about the parts of the production and pre-production pipelines that simply weren’t taught in S.A.”
“It is when I decided to empty my bucket, let go of the defensive ego and learn from my peers that the truth began to open itself up to me. You need to understand that the students at that school are so good, so competitive and so focused on growth that you really don’t need a teacher to inspire you, just look left and right at what your peers are doing and you will find all the fuel you will ever need to tend to your own fire.”
This fire has pushed Lesego through to this day, where he has his own company called The Hidden Hand Studios, and to a point where his story has come full circle, and he now works to help other South Africans enrol in the courses.
“It’s only in my second year when I was more comfortable with the culture, with the language and with the hindsight to truly reflect on what I’d learnt that I made a promise to my new-found family that, at the time, they thought of as a joke, I told them “There’s gonna be a South African in every year as long as this programme exists”.
Since this promise, a South African has been enrolled every year for the past 8 years.
Coming back home, Lesego wanted to honour more African stories. He realised it was his responsibility to make sure South African and African children could see themselves in the animations they enjoyed.
“I never expected that this feeling of wanting to see more Authentic African Aesthetics would be such a widespread feeling, but of course it would be, right? I mean, we all want to relate to characters without having to over-stretch the imagination of how a show’s character reflects yours or another’s life and goals.”
It was this idea that led to Lesego’s episode for Kizazi Moto titled “You Give Me Heart”. With the help of Antony Silverston and Caroline Vos from Triggerfish, they submitted the Kizazi Moto episode’s character design deck to the Emmys, and Lesego won!
“Evidently, everyone could see that the flavour and love I poured into those characters was world-class and stood a chance of winning….and here we are, I won the Emmy for Individual Achievement in Character Design.
It’s still such a crazy reality to reconcile, but one that I hold dearest, as this means that even amongst the best in the world, the African Aesthetic and narrative in animated filmmaking is now being taken more seriously and can compete on an international stage.”
Lesego acknowledged that this win wasn’t his alone. While the industry may be small here in South Africa, he finds himself in great company.
“It is a sign to the next and current generation of animated film makers that their existence is a must, and they too can make work that is noticed by the world.”
Lesego believes that anything is possible, and it’s this belief that has led him to wear so many hats, from animator and director to his longest standing, educator! Working on an animation programme at Tshimologong with IFAS and Gobelins has been the full circle moment he never knew would be part of his dream of becoming an animator.
“The fact that this programme is now so coveted that people from all over Africa endeavour to attend it gives me great heart. It is with this thinking and hope that I created it and I am so grateful to see it grow from strength to strength.”
As more animators from Africa find their voices and styles to tell their stories, so too do the Authentic African Aesthetics grow.
“I sincerely believe that the Authentic African Aesthetic has only just arrived and it will take the world by storm given the right attention. I think it can hold the same place that anime holds in the world but it would need a concerted effort between professionals, officials, government, education institutions and the viewers.”
As for what is next for Lesego, it’s stories rooted in reality but with splashes of magic. He has several projects in the works to honour stories from his past, along with collaborations with Chinelo Onwualu and other animators.
“I am also collaborating with other creators on their projects to ensure that, again, this skill that I have honed doesn’t only serve me but can also be afforded other projects which give me heart in one way or another and elevate them through both association and high-end work.”
From what we have seen so far, the future is truly bright, not only for Lesego but also for all those who dream of following the path he set out on, not so much in his footsteps, but guided by his experiences and inspired by the successes he knows others can achieve too.
This interview is part of a special partnership between the Embassy of France in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi, the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) and Good Things Guy, celebrating 30 years of cultural co-creation. Since 1995, IFAS, the cultural agency of the Embassy of France in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi, has supported artistic and creative exchange across disciplines from visual arts to gaming.
To mark its 30th anniversary in 2025, IFAS and Good Things Guy are sharing the stories of South African creatives whose journeys have been shaped by French–South African cooperation, highlighting three decades of connection, creativity, and shared achievement. You can read them all here.
Sources: GTG Interview
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