Masali Baduza, the 28-year-old South African actress, is making waves as Michaela in the hit Netflix series Bridgerton. Her character, a gender-swapped version of the book's Michael Stirling, is set to stir up drama in a love triangle with Francesca and John Stirling in the upcoming second part of season four, airing on 26 February.
Born in East London, Eastern Cape, in 1997, Baduza grew up in a family with a journalist father and a government employee mother. After high school, she moved to the US to study at the New York Film Academy, graduating in 2016. Bilingual in Xhosa and English, she returned to South Africa to begin her career in theatre, notably performing in an all-female production of The Taming of the Shrew.
Her first major TV role came in the South African crime thriller Trackers, playing Thandi Makebe. That same year, she was named a rising star by the Royal Television Society. In 2020, she landed her breakthrough role as Sephy Hadley in the BBC One drama Noughts + Crosses, marking her first work outside South Africa.
Baduza has also appeared in Love and Wine, The Woman King, and The Morning After. She is the youngest of her siblings, with brothers working in corporate and art curation, and a sister in jewellery. Reflecting on her upbringing, she credits her mother for instilling a sense of ubuntu, saying, 'My mum never wanted to raise selfish people.'
Speaking about her role in Bridgerton, Baduza shared her excitement: 'I jumped around the house, screaming with my mom and sister after getting the call.' She also reflected on her ancestry, noting the contrast between her character's privilege and her own family's history under apartheid.
