Moonyeenn Lee

Moonyeenn Lee (circa 1945-2020) is an influential theatrical agent, casting director and producer.

Sometimes found as Moonyeen Lee

Biography

She was born in Johannesburg, but moved to England at the age of seven, where she spent most of her childhood with her mother, Shirley Hepburn. There she was trained as an agent by James Fraser of Fraser and Dunlop in 1974, the year she conceived her agency Moonyeen Lee Associates.

She is the mother of actor David S. Lee.

She died due to complications caused by the COVID-19 virus on Saturday, 18 July 2020, in Johannesburg.

Contribution to the theatre, film, media and performance industry in South Africa

The Moonyeenn Lee Associates agency managed the careers of many actors, directors and writers and worked exstensively in film, managing the casting of films such as The Bang Bang Club, Disgrace, Tsotsi, Fanie Fourie's Lobola, Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom, Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond, among many others.

She also formed the production company Khulisa Productions to make films. The first project she wrote and produced the script for was the film Promised Land, based on the novel by Karel Schoeman (2003).

Lee received the Lionel Ngakane Lifetime Achievement Award at the SA Film & Television Awards in 2017.

Sources

https://www.tvsa.co.za/actors/viewactor.aspx?actorid=11110

Die Burger 17 December 2011.

SACD 1978/79

https://ewn.co.za/2020/07/19/tsotsi-casting-director-moonyeen-lee-dies-after-contracting-covid-19

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-07-19-sas-legendary-casting-queen-moonyeenn-lee-dies-from-covid-19-complications/

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