Clarke thrilled by nomination for WasterChef SA
HE IS known as the big kahuna of reality television in South Africa, having directed Fear Factor, Survivor and So You Think You Can Dance, and now the executive producer of MasterChef South Africa and former East Londoner Donald Clarke is up for a coveted Emmy award for the hit M-Net cooking show.
Clarke, 36, who matriculated from Selborne College in 1995 before studying journalism at Rhodes University, said he was super-excited by the nomination. I have been plugging away at reality TV for years and this is also great recognition for the skill and expertise that exists in this country, so I am happy for the whole industry.
Clarke jets off to New York next week ahead of the International Emmy Awards Gala at the New York Hilton on November 25.
“I am up against incredible shows but to be part of it and be among other producers - I can’t wait.”
Clarke said although he had been a keen musician and thespian at school, his schoolboy career aim was to be a politician.
“When I was 12, I was on a school trip in Duncan Village and by coincidence Donald Woods was there being interviewed by a BBC crew for a documentary.”
“I was quite a little liberal and knew about him and Steve Biko, so Iran up to him to say hello and ended up being part of the doccie.”
“I think that shaped me,” said Clarke, who went to Rhodes to study politics, but ended up focusing on journalism because he felt communication was the key to changing perceptions in South Africa.
A stint with the SABCs educational arm was followed by working on K-TV before he directed Top Billing.
“Directing was a natural fit for me due to my dramatic, journalism and music background, and I have always been a storyteller at heart.”
In 2003, he lost that heart to New York and a “gap year” in the Big Apple saw him interviewing stars like Robin Williams, Norah Jones and Will Smith for M-Net at the Grammy Awards.
But his love for storytelling found a perfect home in the early days of South African reality shows based on international formats.
“In 2004, I directed Project Fame and that was my in in terms of telling stories with ordinary people,” said Clarke, who lives in Johannesburg with his chartered accountant wife Karen - a product of East Londons Stirling High School - and their two children, Jaimie, three, and sevenmonth-old Callum.
“Out of that came Survivor my first really big production as a serious director, and then So You Think You Can Dance, and I opened my own company, Lucky Bean, with [Idols judge] Unathi Msengana, who is also from the Eastern Cape.”
He is thrilled with the Emmy nomination for the first season of MasterChef SA.
“MasterChef SA works because it is a show for the whole family ... It is motivational and positive, which is what South Africans prefer in the local shows.” Casting is key in reality shows, he believes.
SUPER-EXCITED: ‘MasterChef SA’ executive producer Donald Clarke has been nominated for an Emmy
By Barbara Hollands
Source: Weekend Post