First animated series from Africa coming to Netflix!

Mama K’s Team 4 is coming your way!

Netflix has been adding a growing selection of African content lately but this time it is introducing its first original animated series “Mama K’s Team 4“, produced by South Africa’s Award-winning animation studio Triggerfish and British Kids’ and Family Entertainment Production Company CAKE.

The series follows four teenage girls living in a futuristic version of Lusaka, Zambia, who are recruited by a retired secret agent to save the world. It was created by Zambian writer Malenga Mulendema, who in 2015 was one of eight winners of the Triggerfish Story Lab, a pan-African talent search backed by the Cape Town-based animation studio and The Walt Disney Co. The series is designed by the Cameroonian artist Malcolm Wope.

Triggerfish has become a powerhouse in South Africa’s Animation Industry in the past decade, it’s first animated films Adventures in Zambezia (2012) and Khumba (2013) have are two of the five top-grossing South African movies of all time. Mulendema said she was inspired by the experience of watching cartoons in her native Zambia, where none of her heroes looked like her or lived in a world that resembled her own.

In creating a superhero show set in Lusaka, I hope to introduce the world to four strong African girls who save the day in their own fun and crazy way,” she said. “Most importantly, I want to illustrate that anyone from anywhere can be a superhero.

Malenga Mulendema

“Mama K’s Team Four” is the latest African Original Series for Netflix, which recently announced its first two dramatic series on the continent. Now the Streamer is collaborating with Triggerfish and CAKE on a Pan-African search for local female writing talent to join the creative team. Melissa Cobb, the Vice President of Original Animation had this to say about the Collaboration:

“In addition to giving African writers a global platform on which to be heard, we are excited to present this powerful and entertaining new animated series that brings Malenga’s incredible and unique vision to life on Netflix, Mama K’s Team 4 has the potential to give a whole new generation of African children the opportunity to see themselves on screen in the powerful, aspirational characters they look up to.”

Melissa Cobb

Triggerfish’s collaborations with the U.K.’s Magic Light Pictures have produced four multi-award-winning BBC Christmas adaptations, including Roald Dahl’s “Revolting Rhymes” (2016), which was nominated for an Oscar and won more than 15 international awards, including an International Emmy. The studio is currently in production on its third animated feature, “Seal Team.”

Vanessa Ann Sinden, Triggerfish’s development producer, said “After animating four multi-award-winning BBC Christmas specials set in England, including the Oscar Nominated ‘Revolting Rhymes,’ Triggerfish is delighted to bring an African capital city to life on Netflix.”

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