Zamo Mkhwanazi was born in Durban, South Africa. She started as a writer for television and is the screenwriter of the TV series Ya Lla, which was acclaimed by the critics. In 2011 she made her directing debut with Philia, and her subsequent short films were selected by the most important international festivals, including Toronto, Sundance, Clermont Ferrand and la Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. She is working at present on developing her first feature film, Laundry, the project of which was selected for the Torino Film Lab.