Andrew Worsdale

Andrew Worsdale is a South African actor, director and journalist. He was born in Johannesburg in 1962 and studied at St John's and Eden College after which he studied Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand where he trained as an actor and filmmaker. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship at the age of 21 to study for his MFA in Film and TV Production at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). On his return to South Africa in 1986 he made his feature film directing debut with his MFA thesis film Shot Down (1987), which became a cult hit movie and won a Special Prize at the Mannheim Film Festival. The Mail and Guardian wrote: "If there were an award for the definitive South African film of the 1980s, the undisputed title-holder would be Shot Down, Andrew Worsdale's nihilistic take on the drug-crazed, politically confused, spy-versus-spy excesses that took place during the State of Emergency." Worsdale produced two documentaries for BBC Television before moving back to South Africa where he was the Mail & Guardian film critic for many years before turning to freelance writing about cinema for a number of publications incl. Sight and Sound, Cahiers du Cinema and Screen International. He is active as an actor on stage and in film, known for his roles in the feature films The Fourth Reich (1990) and [error]. Durban Poison (2013), a killer romance road movie based on a true story and starring Brandon Auret and Cara Roberts, is Worsdale's second feature, after 27 years. It won the 'Best South African Feature' award at the Durban International Film festival in July 2013, before playing Busan International Film festival, BFI London Film Festival and in competition at Africa International Film festival, Calabar, Jozi Film Fest, 10th Dubai International Film Festival and Luxor African Film Festival.