Karien Scheepers

Karien Scheepers (b. 1956) is an actress and playwright. Also credited as Karien Polley.

Biography

Karien Elizabeth Scheepers was born on 28 March 1956 and studied drama at the University of Stellenbosch. Here she took part in productions staged by the Libertas Teaterklub, as well as in plays like Die Goue Kring (1976) and Die Goeie Mens van Sezuan (1977) presented by the Universiteitsteater. Following this Marié du Toit cast her in the title role of the film Nicolene (1978), with the likes of Danie Joubert, Rina Nienaber and Emile Aucamp.

In 1977 she married James Pollley, the founder and director of the Cape Town International Film Festival. Under her married name she appeared in the play Toorberg (2005), produced by Juanita Swanepoel at Artscape, as well as in two television series, namely Woestynblom (Koos Roets/1995) and Lied van die Lappop (Dirk de Villiers/2001). After her husband’s death in 1999 she also turned to writing for radio, notably for Radio Sonder Grense (RSG), with plays like Van die Vlees (2015), Littekens (2016) and the serial Roosvallei. Her drama Sarah, with June van Merch and Marcel van Heerden, which dealt with the life of Saartjie Baartman, was part of the RSG Kunstefees in 2016. The audio drama Out of the Shadow: the Peace Trees of Hiroshima was aired on Fine Music Radio on 16 December 2020.