Rosemary Waweru is among the talented actors who don’t seem to age. She first appeared on the screens at a time when the number of Kenyan TV dramas were few and most Kenyans only had access to a handful of TV channels.
Here is her career journey as told by WoK.
Love for Acting and Tabasamu
The actress started acting while in school. She was a part of the drama club and then managed to get into acting soon after high school.
Rosemary joined theatre at Alliwah David’s Theatrix Arts Ensemble before auditioning for Tabasamu, a program that aired on Citizen TV from 2008.
In the program, she portrayed Maya, a working class girl living the high life and attracting the attention of rich men. This was the program that brought the likes of Niki Mutuma to the limelight.
Hiatus and comeback
While she would appear in other shows, she took a hiatus and only got another main role of the show Faithless airing on Showmax.
Before this, she had been featured on Pray and Prey and Selina. She then said in an interview that she had taken a break in order to raise her two girls.
“Acting is my first love after all but raising my girls was very important to me. And it was also good for me to take a break to rejuvenate and come back stronger so I do think it was necessary to take that time off,” she was quoted by Citizen digital.
In Faithless, she plays the role Esther, a waitress whose life is thrown into shambles after coming upon proceeds of a heist that did not go as planned. She faces the temptation of taking the money or remaining faithful to her faith.
Apart from acting, she is a digital content consultant working with a number of companies including Za Kwetu.
Thoughts on the industry
The actor believes that in order to succeed in acting one needs to take it as a business.
Although she said the industry has experienced growth, she also believes there is still room for improvement.
“There is room for growth and improvement. For example, the Actors Guild has come up with the minimum wage but still hasn’t been able to push it to the policymakers. Having a minimum wage that is not in practice is not helpful. There is a need for more measures to be taken to ensure that cast and crew are compensated fairly. We have a long way to go to be quite honest,” Waweru was quoted by a local blog.
