Blake Steenkamp

Artist in Residence, Film

Blake Steenkamp (born January 31, 1988)

South African artist, music video and film director and producer.

He is currently best known for directing award nominated music videos for recording artists such as YoungstaCPT, Chad Da Don, Habida Moloney (Kenya) and Patty Monroe.

In 2016 he produced and co-directed the documentary ‘Olifantland’ – a multilingual visual theatre show exploring the meaning of reconciliation in post-apartheid South Africa, featuring majestic life-size elephant puppets crafted by Handspring Puppet Company in collaboration with UKWANDA Puppet and Design Collective.

Born at the tail-end of apartheid, Blake grew up idolising the music videos of Hype Williams and the feature films of Spielberg, Korine and Stone. After co-founding local music production and events company, Khoi-Soul, Blake ventured into the world of film and video production. 

2015 saw him become a content producer at Stanley John Agency, a boutique film agency he co-founded with director Dale Fortune. Stanley John Agency’s output consisted of producing visual content for clients as diverse as Greeff Property and the Intel Corporation.

In 2017 he produced the music video for YoungstaCPT’s hit single ‘Wes-Kaap’, which went on to be nominated for a South African Hip Hop Award in the ‘Best South African Hip Hop Music Award’ category.

Blake is a fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape for 2018. He is currently working on new documentaries.

He currently resides in Cape Town, South Africa.