Serah Teshna, now a mother of two to footballer Victor Wanyama, values her privacy.
Serah Teshna Ndanu is an actress and former TV host. Her last acting role was when she appeared on Showmax’s “Igiza” series in 2022. She is also the girlfriend of Kenyan international footballer Victor Wanyama, and together they have two children. The two had been dating for years before Teshna left the country to be with her husband who plays in Scotland.
I am a cucumber (Kikuyu -Kamba), I come from Kitui.
My father named me Teshna, which means beauty, and Ndanu is a Kamba name for someone always happy. I think I am all that.
I am an actress above anything else. I come from an artistic family. My mother was a drama teacher, and all of us, including my siblings, were involved in acting in some way. Even then, my parents didn’t want me to pursue acting as a career.
My acting started with Nairobi Law, which used to air on Citizen TV back in the day. Then I did Ragged Priest, Sumu La Penzi, Sue Na Johnnie, Pieces of Us, among others.
When I got into the industry, we didn’t have social media. You had to wait for an audition, and people would show up in hundreds. It was quite frustrating.
Right now, people who are joining the industry are so fortunate, you don’t have to wait for a casting agent to call you for a role, you can put your craft on social media and just bag a role. We have seen people grow off social media.
The pay is also good these days. What I always tell people is that when it comes to we the artists or actors in Kenya, you need to have different sources of income. The pandemic taught us that. Being an all-rounder has helped me, in the sense that when I don’t have an acting role, I have other things going on.
Since 2014, I have been running a construction company, and that’s because my family is very business-minded. My father has been doing construction for quite a long time.
I have been very passionate about skin care because I suffered for quite a long time. A few years back, I struggled with acne because of the contraceptive I was using, which damaged my face. The makeup I was using was also harming my skin, and I didn’t know about that until much later, when I started learning about skin care.
I didn’t know I would enjoy motherhood as much as I do. Being a mum has given my life new meaning. The babies have strengthened our bond as a family and we are more goal-oriented now.”
Whether Wanyama and I are married or not is something we will get to know with time. We are very private individuals.
The reason we kept our relationship under wraps for years isn’t because we were hiding anything. We are both brands in separate fields, and in our society, when you are with someone whose brand is bigger than yours, most of the time, your brand gets overshadowed. People tend to forget so fast what you have achieved as a woman, and you will always be referred to as so-and-so’s partner.
For instance, I had an interview and talked about a lot of things about me, but when the article came out, I wasn’t referred to by my name but as Wanyama’s girlfriend. It didn’t feel fair.
