Rob van Vuuren

Robert Craig Jansen van Vuuren (born 26 March 1976) is a South African comedian, actor, presenter, theatre maker, and writer.

Rob van Vuuren
Van Vuuren in 2009
Born	Robert Craig Jansen van Vuuren (1976-03-26) 26 March 1976 (age 48) Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Alma mater	Rhodes University
Years active	1999–present
Children	1

Early life

Van Vuuren was born in Port Elizabeth.^[1] He completed his matriculation at Maritzburg College before going on to graduate with a degree in Drama from Rhodes University in 1997.^[2] During university, he joined the First Physical Theatre Company.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Van Vuuren began his career in theatre, receiving Vita and Fleur du Cap Theatre Award nominations for his roles in the productions Birdy and The Beauty Queen of Leenane respectively.^[3]

Forming a comedy and creative duo with Louw Venter, van Vuuren produced and played Twakkie in YouTube videos and later in the SABC2 sketch comedy series The Most Amazing Show from 2006 to 2007. Venter played Corné. The duo also took these personas on a live tour. During this time, van Vuuren presented Crazy Games, also for SABC2 and starred in the comedy film Footskating 101 as Vince Muldoon.

Van Vuuren and his dance partner Mary Martin won the fifth season of Strictly Come Dancing in 2008. That same year, he wrote and performed his first stand up comedy show Rob van Vuuren is Ron van Wuren, which received a South African Comedy Award nomination and picked up the Nando's Breakthrough Act Award at the National Arts Festival that year.^[4] Through Juju Productions, he directed a number of plays.^[5] He was invited by Brett Bailey to perform at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday party in Qunu.^[6] Van Vuuren went on to co-host the first two seasons of SA's Got Talent with Anele Mdoda.

In 2011, Van Vuuren received the inaugural Comics' Choice Breakthrough Act Award for his work in comedy and has since gone on to win five Standard Bank Ovation Awards at the annual National Arts Festival.^[7] He has also taken his comedy shows abroad the likes of London, Brighton, Edinburgh, Perth, Amsterdam, Dubai, and Sharjah.^[8]

Van Vuuren starred opposite Siv Ngesi in the 2012 crime comedy film Copposites.^[9][10] He, Ngesi, and Danielle Bischoff created the children's book series Florence & Watson as well as it accompanying stage show.

In 2016, van Vuuren and Bontle Modiselle co-hosted the competition series Showville. That year, he starred in a production of A Doll's House, for which he received a number of accolades including a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award.

Van Vuuren starred as the titular role in the 2017 comedy film Van der Merwe, reuniting with Venter, who played his brother.^[11] The following year, he appeared in the film Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell. He earned three Fleur du Cap nominations in 2018 and 2019 for his roles in Louis Viljoen's Dangled as well as the Baxter Theatre productions of Endgame and Curse of the Starving Class.

Van Vuuren joined the main cast of the 2020 Netflix crime drama Queen Sono as Viljoen. The following year, he played Russ Thorn in the 2021 Slumber Party Massacre remake and starred as Mr Angelo in the SABC1 drama miniseries The Kingdom.

Van Vuuren embarked on a new comedy show in 2022 titled Rob van Vuuren is Still Standing at Cafe Roux.

Personal life

Van Vuuren was married to Danielle Bischoff, with whom he collaborated on Juju Productions and Florence & Watson, from 2008 until sometime during lockdown.^[12] Van Vuuren and Bischoff had lived in Fish Hoek with their daughter, whom they adopted.^[13]

Upon Showmax's 2020 decision to review content on its platform, van Vuuren issued an official apology for having engaged in blackface for a 2013 Leon Schuster film.^[14]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Final Solution	Hennie Terblanche
2003	Adrenaline	John
	The Bone Snatcher	Scientist
2005	Straight Outta Benoni	Hippie
2007	Footskating 101	Vince Muldoon
2012	Copposites	Jan Venter
2013	Schuks! Your Country Needs You	Wayne
	Die Laaste Tango	Kevin King
	Khumba	Various	Voice role
2015	Stone Cold Jane Austen	Karel
2017	Van der Merwe	Van
2018	Tremors: A Cold Day in Hell	Swackhamer	Direct-to-video
2021	The Mauritanian	Officer
	Good Life	Bob
	Slumber Party Massacre	Russ Thorn
2023	Hammarskjöld	Kennedy's advisor
	The Umbrella Men: Escape from Robben Island	Cope
2024	Just Now Jeffrey	Willem Wessels

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006–2007	The Most Amazing Show	Twakkie	Main role
	Crazy Games	Himself
2008	Strictly Come Dancing	Himself	Won
2009–2010	SA's Got Talent	Himself
2014	I Love South Africa	Himself	Guest
2016	Showville	Himself
2017	Is That a Fact?	Himself
2020	Queen Sono	Viljoen	Main role
2021	The Kingdom	Mr Angelo	Miniseries; main role
	Comedy Mixtape	Himself	Episode 13
2022	Ludik	Swys De Villiers	6 episodes[15]

Stage

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Shopping and F**king	Robbie	Gauloises Warehouse, Cape Town
2000	Birdy	Al	Tesson Theatre, Johannesburg / National Arts Festival
2001	A Midsummer Night's Dream		Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, Cape Town
	Die Toneelstuk	Hond / Aljosja	Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees
	The Beauty Queen of Leenane	Ray Dooley	Baxter Theatre, Cape Town
2005, 2013	The Three Little Pigs		Tour; writer[16]
2006	The Best Man's Speech	—	Director
2007	Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead	Guildenstern	Baxter Theatre, Cape Town
	Brother Number	Stan	Kalk Bay Theatre, Cape Town
2008	Swazi	—	Director[17]
	Mouche
	Odd One Out
	Isabella
2008, 2019	Electric Juju	One Man Show	Writer
2012	A Comedy of Errors	Dromio of Syracuse	Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, Cape Town
2016	A Doll's House	Nils Krogstad	National Arts Festival
2016–2018	Dangled	Poprischin	Tour
2018	Endgame	Clov	Baxter Theatre, Cape Town
	Curse of the Starving Class	Ellis / Slater	Baxter Theatre, Cape Town / Woordfees, Stellenbosch
2023	The Promise	Anton Swart	Homecoming Centre, Cape Town / Market Theatre, Johannesburg[18]

Stand up

Year	Title	Notes
2006–2007	The Most Amazing Show	With Louw Venter
2008	Rob van Vuuren is Ron van Wuren
2011	Rob van Vuuren – Live!
2012	Pants on Fire
2013–2014	WhatWhat
2019	Best of Rob van Vuuren
2022	Rob van Vuuren is Still Standing

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref
2000	Vita Awards	Best Actor	Birdy	Nominated
2001	Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards	Best Supporting Actor	The Beauty Queen of Leenane	Nominated
2008	South African Comedy Awards	One Man Show of the Year	Rob van Vuuren is Ron van Wuren	Nominated
	National Arts Festival	Nando's Breakthrough Act Award		Won
2011	Savanna Comics' Choice Awards	Breakthrough Act		Won
	Ovation Awards	Silver	Rob van Vuuren – Live!	Won
2012				Won
2013			WhatWhat	Won
2016	Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards	Best Supporting Actor	A Doll's House	Won
	Woordfees	Best Supporting Actor		Won
2018	Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards	Best Actor	Endgame	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actor	Curse of the Starving Class	Nominated
		Dangled	Best Performance in a One Person Show	Nominated
2021	South African Horrorfest	Best Supporting Actor	Slumber Party Massacre	Nominated
2022	South African Film and Television Awards	Best Supporting Actor in a TV Comedy	Comedy Mixtape	Pending	[19]

References

1. "Roll with laughter with Rob". Weekend Post. 1 July 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
2. "Flies and mutant toenails". Rhodes University. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
3. "Profile: Rob van Vuuren". What's On in Joburg. 18 May 2015. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
4. "Rob van Vuuren". Autograph. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
5. "Who is Rob van Vuuren?". Channel24. 18 June 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
6. "Rob van Vuuren reminisces about taking part in Bailey's tribute to Mandela". Zalist.co.za. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
7. "Rob Van Vuuren - What What". Jaco Haasbroek. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
8. Wild, Stephi (31 October 2019). "BEST OF ROB VAN VUUREN Will Come to The Drama Factory". BroadwayWorld. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
9. "Rob van Vuuren and Siv Ngesi get silly in Copposites". Channel24. 18 October 2012. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
10. "Riaad Moosa, Rob van Vuuren hit Comedy Central". DStv. 29 November 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2013.
11. "It's no joke! Rob van Vuuren is bringing 'Van der Merwe' to life in new film". Times Live. 6 April 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
12. Kiewit, Lester (6 April 2022). "Rob van Vuuren is back with a new comedy show called "Rob van Vuuren is Still Standing"". Cape Talk. Retrieved 28 April 2022.
13. de Villiers, James (27 June 2020). "Saturday Profile: Rob Van Vuuren on blackface, his apology and leaving the hate behind". News24. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
14. Selisho, Kaunda (22 June 2020). "An apology done right, Rob Van Vuuren apologises for doing blackface". The Citizen. Retrieved 2 March 2022.
15. Staff Reporter (20 July 2022). "Netflix is getting its first series in Afrikaans". TechCentral. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
16. Yiga, Eugene (29 January 2013). "Rob van Vuuren and the Three Little Pigs". Biz Community. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
17. "The many faces of Rob van Vuuren". Mail & Guardian. 4 July 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
18. McKay, Bronwyn (10 May 2023). "Star-studded team brings the world premiere of Damon Galgut's The Promise to the local stage". News24. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
19. Ferreira, Thinus (14 July 2022). "From The Wife to Tali's Baby Diary - All the 2022 Saftas nominations". Channel24. Retrieved 16 July 2022.

External links

• Rob van Vuuren at IMDb
• Rob van Vuuren at TVSA
• Rob van Vuuren at Artistes Personal Management
• Florence & Watson website