OCTOBER 2017 GQ.CO.ZA 21GIRL ON OUR MIND
MAN OF THE MOMENT
PREVIEW
TECHNOLOGY
GROOMING
GENTLEMAN’S CORNER
THE TALK
STATUS SYMBOL
TASTE
DESTINATION
SEX
MUSIC
MOVIES
GAMES
BOOKS
GQ&A
WORDS BY DAYLE KAVONIC. PHOTOGRAPHS BY JAMES FOX AND GLAM FUEL
ZAKEEYA
PATEL
This spirited Jo’burg
actress, presenter
and producer doesn’t
do ‘can’t’A
ctress Zakeeya
Patel is, in her
own words, ‘like
a spinning top’.
She’s tireless, feisty, wildly
driven. ‘I grew up in Durban
and studied in Cape Town,
but I’m much more of a
Jo’burger than anything else,’
she admits. ‘I drive like one,
I move at the pace of one.’
Her restless approach to
life is no doubt a key reason
why she’s achieved almost
everything she’s aimed
for so far (other than her
childhood dream to become
a mermaid, of course). In
fact, she’s shaped a career
for herself that’s currently
so jam-packed with
opportunities, she barely has
time for anything else, let
alone planning her November
nuptials with fi nancial expert
Rob Price, a man she calls,
‘the cool to her fi re’.
Since she broke onto
the acting scene with her
performance as Riaad Moosa’s
younger sister in Material,
Zakeeya has had role after role
come her way: in major local
TV series like Th e Wild and
High Rollers, in Eve Ensler’s
Emotional Creature theatre
production, and even as a
contestant in the sixth season
of Strictly Come Dancing,
which she went on to win (no
surprise there).
She’s also produced an
educational lifestyle show
focused on making health
sexy and accessible –
‘producing was the scariest
thing I’ve ever done’ – and is
a presenter on the show >>