Sarahann in the spotlight
FERNDALE – Local TV presenter and business woman discusses her career.
Sarahann Doherty just keeps growing as a role player in the entertainment industry.
After rising through the ranks as a singer, and an actor on Binnelanders and Isidingo, the 35-year-old Ferndale resident has ascended to become managing director of The Playhouse while still working as a TV presenter.
The Playhouse is based at Doherty’s home.
It produces five shows for ASTV, an Afrikaans channel available on OpenView HD and StarSat.
One show it produces is In die Kollig (In the spotlight), a lifestyle programme aired on Tuesdays at 8pm, on which Doherty is a presenter.
“There was a stage when I loved singing only,” she says. “Then acting. Now producing. There were stages, developing and growing me as a person.”
Doherty started acting on TV at the age of three, singing in an Oros advert.
As time passed her love for the entertainment industry grew.
She studied abroad, at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, New York, and at the University of California.
Then she returned to South Africa and made a name for herself on TV. “Acting is wonderful, everyone should do acting courses,” she says. According to Doherty, acting teaches one how to “read people” and truly understand through their behaviour what they are really communicating. “But the career is not always lucrative. You have to have a thick skin, be persistent and know who you are. You will go through many rejections.”
