Still Breathing is the latest M-Net production making waves on the local television scene.

Local drama Still Breathing screens in the popular M-Net 101 Thursday-night slot at 20:00. This proudly South African series will push a totally different set of buttons: the ones of the heart. Love, friendship, complicated relationships, betrayal and long-kept secrets form the emotional crux of a tale about a circle of former friends who have drifted apart with the passage of time but are drawn together again when tragedy strikes. In short, it’s all about love, death and the mess in between.

What makes Still Breathing extra-special is that it showcases passionate local families in more ways than one – both on- and off-screen. In the director’s chair is multiple SAFTA award winner Johnny Barbuzano (The River, The Gift, Isozo Connection). The script is the creation of Johnny’s wife, Golden Globe award-winning actress and writer Tiffany Barbuzano, who also co-produces the series with her hubby and is part of the cast. Tiffany also plays mom to their real-life offspring, up-and-coming stars Jamie and Jesse Barbuzano!

Still Breathing is produced by BBZ Films for M-Net.

Stars align: SA’s best unite in Still Breathing

27 February 2020

Catch the premiere of the highly anticipated series on M-Net (101)

Read more

Meet The Cast

Abi – Kate Liquorish

Abi is smart, fun and quirky. She is a perfectionist and is always there to lend a helping or advisory hand to her friends and family.

Trent – Brendan Pollecutt

Trent is a loving and doting husband with a terrible secret. A sudden tragedy sends shockwaves through the friend's group and Trent, not fully knowing who he is, is a chameleon who changes his colours according to who he’s with. He is the quintessential golden boy who does not want to upset anyone around him.

Jessica [Jess] – Tiffany Barbuzano

Jess is a super mom who seems to be able to do it all. She’s Abi’s Number 1 supporter and will do anything to protect her sister. Jess has always been level-headed, which has given everyone around her the impression that she has everything together, but a sudden loss and devastating news send her reeling.

Danny – Brandon Auret

Danny is the gentle giant of the group; friendly, reliable and an all-round good guy. He is a loving partner to Jess and dotes on his 3 children. He is incredibly loyal to his friends who are like family to him.

Candice – Shannon Esra

Candice is the supermodel of the group – beautiful, wealthy and a career-driven woman. She has been Abi’s best friend since high school, but their relationship could be likened to that of sisters.

T-Boss – Siv Ngesi

T-Boss is the guiding light of the group. He’s always there and ready to assist whenever anyone needs him – no questions asked. He works as a doctor and grew up with 2 mothers in Bryanston. T-Boss’s life has not been an easy one. He is married to Noli and is a father of twin girls.

Lucille – Lorcia Cooper

Lucille is forthright and very loving. She would do absolutely anything to protect her friends or save them from any kind of pain/trauma. She is a champion of truth and justice no matter the cost. Her love for justice and equality are her strongest assets and her greatest flaws.

Stephen – Ty Keogh

Stephen is the group’s resident bad boy. He was an IT genius with endless promise but is now an old man in a young man’s industry. He is the epitome of cool and has not changed since his youth.

Colin – Michael Richards

A warm, kind, slightly eccentric man who has a love not only for his family but for his bowls too. He will dance in the rain while sipping gin and tonics and is easily as comfortable in a room full of businessmen. He has been the only man in the household filled with women (Abi, Jessica and his wife, Helen) for many years so he has a close bond with his son-in-law (Danny). He is now faced with looking after his rapidly ailing wife’s dementia but tries to remain as positive as possible. He is an old-school gentleman but will defend his children and wife to death.

Tegan – Jane de Wet

Tegan is a rebel – young, vibrant and a bit of a lost cause according to her father, Oliver. A “laatlammetjie” growing up in the golden glow of her brother, Trent. She has thrived in his shadow despite her father’s dismissive relationship. Her mother, Trish, is her greatest support.

Mrs Jones – Dorothy Ann Gould

She is T-Boss’s adoptive mother. She is a typical Bryanston middle-aged woman who took in the maid’s son and raised him like her own. She loves T-Boss and regards Innocent as her best friend.

Innocent – Nandi Nyembe

Innocent is T-Boss’s biological mother and continues her job as a domestic worker in the house where her son grew up with two mothers – one white and one black. She adores her son. She remains best friends with Mrs Jones.

Noli – Fulu Mugovhani

Noli is a young, fun-loving woman who struggles with motherhood. She is married to T-Boss and unfortunately feels tied down in the marriage. Noli tries her best to be supportive but doesn’t understand/can’t relate to her husband’s need to connect to his roots and find out who he is. She feels like an outsider in T-Boss’s group of friends; the age gap doesn’t help, and as a result, she comes off as standoffish and finds it hard to find her feet with them.

Trish – Susan Danford

Trish is first and foremost a mother. She is a woman who has always done her “job”, a socialite who is the perfect wife. She throws the best dinners, wears the right clothes and is Oliver’s greatest achievement. Coming from a poor family in Rosettenville, she has always felt like she owes Oliver something for “saving her”, something he often holds over her. She is a "rags to riches" story. However, she is a good mother as her own parents may not have had a lot of money but they did have an abundance of love.

Oliver – Sean Taylor

Oliver is an astute businessman and heavy-handed father figure to his children, Trent and Tegan. The patriarch of the family, he is a man who worked hard to financially secure his place on top of Northcliff Hill. He now lives a life of luxury behind the high walls and electric fences and is obsessed with keeping up appearances.

Helen – Michelle Maxwell

Abi and Jessica’s mother, Helen is a vivacious, attractive and strong older woman who has always had the highest intelligence. A devourer of books, poetry and a woman who thrived on her eccentric view of the world. Warm, kind and funny, she now has Lewy body dementia – a rapid onset form of dementia. She has moments of clarity which sometimes devastate her because she knows what’s happening to her.