TATS NKONZO
Gauteng
Mthawelanga “Tats” Nkonzo (born 19 March 1985) is a South African stand-up comedian, singer, and television personality. He is best known as the host of the e.tv reality competition SA’s Got Talent. He was also a co-host on Uyangithanda na?
He opened for Loyiso Gola at the Teatro at Monte Casino for Loyiso’s one-man show, Life and Times. Based on the content of Nkonzo’s material on stage, CNN’s African Voices profiled him offering an opportunity to speak about South Africa and how stand-up comedy fits in the bigger picture of nation building.
Nkonzo is known for his musical segments on the fourth season of the eNCA’s satirical news show Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola, in 2012. He was a Top 24 finalist in the third season of the M-Net reality competition Idols, in 2005.
In 2008, Nkonzo got his big break when he made the Top 8 of the SABC1 reality competition So You Think You’re Funny! Once the show ended, he was asked to tour with the Top 3 from the season. Tats performed at Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre, Johannesburg’s The Market Theatre and the Pieter Torien Theatre (Monte Casino). He was the opening act for Nik Rabinowitz in Nik’s one-man shows You Can’t Be Serious and Stand and Deliver.
Mthawelanga “Tats” Nkonzo (born 19 March 1985) is a South African stand-up comedian, singer, and television personality. He is best known as the host of the e.tv reality competition SA’s Got Talent. He was also a co-host on Uyangithanda na?
He opened for Loyiso Gola at the Teatro at Monte Casino for Loyiso’s one-man show, Life and Times. Based on the content of Nkonzo’s material on stage, CNN’s African Voices profiled him offering an opportunity to speak about South Africa and how stand-up comedy fits in the bigger picture of nation building.
Nkonzo is known for his musical segments on the fourth season of the eNCA’s satirical news show Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola, in 2012. He was a Top 24 finalist in the third season of the M-Net reality competition Idols, in 2005.
In 2008, Nkonzo got his big break when he made the Top 8 of the SABC1 reality competition So You Think You’re Funny! Once the show ended, he was asked to tour with the Top 3 from the season. Tats performed at Cape Town’s Baxter Theatre, Johannesburg’s The Market Theatre and the Pieter Torien Theatre (Monte Casino). He was the opening act for Nik Rabinowitz in Nik’s one-man shows You Can’t Be Serious and Stand and Deliver.
After three years of stage performances, Nkonzo performed his debut one-man show, Can’t Tats This, in his East London home town. He appeared in the first Blacks Only DVD after performing as part of an ensemble line-up at Lyric Theatre.
Nkonzo received the BlackBerry Breakthrough Act Award at the 2nd Annual South African Comics Choice Awards, in 2012. In the same year he took over from Rob van Vuur
en and Anele Mdoda as sole host of SA’s Got Talent. He was the seventh host of the Comedy Central series Comedy Central Presents… Live at Parker’s, in 2012.
Tats won the Montreux Comedy Festival in 2014 and made his Edinburgh debut in 2015 with The African with Wi-Fi, which received fantastic audience numbers and reviews.
In 2017, he made his Australian debut at the Perth Comedy Festival, as well as popping over to Europe for a sold-out solo show at the Rotterdam Comedy Festival. He also returned to the UK for a run of gigs in London, and recorded BBC Radio 4 series Welcome to Wherever You Are.
In 2018, Tats completed a run of shows in Switzerland, and appeared at the Montreux Comedy Festival @ UAE in Dubai. The same year, he brought his brand-new show Sorry Not Sorry to the Angel Comedy Club in London. He was then invited back to perform at the Montreux Comedy Festival Trending Comics Gala in Switzerland.
In 2019 Tats was featured as one of the 50 judges “The Wall of the World” on CBS brand new season The World’s Best.
