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- Selema Masekela’s half-brother appears on ‘Survivor’.
- Selema Masekela is involved in many social initiatives.
- Selema Masekela has a musical background and he likely inherited it from his jazz musician father.
Lupita Nyong’o and boyfriend Selema Masekela went Instagram official on Dec. 23, and we couldn’t be more thrilled for them. The Black Panther star, 39, made the announcement that she’s dating the TV host and sports commentator, 51, by sharing an adorable video of themselves wearing various outfits and grooving to music together on Friday morning. “We just click,” she wrote in the Instagram caption, and it was enough to muster up a ton of excitement amongst her fans and followers. Well, that and the obvious hashtag #Thisismylove. So who exactly is Selema? Here’s everything you need to know.
1. Selema Masekela’s brother was a contestant on ‘Survivor’.
Selema was born in Los Angeles, and he’s the son of a Haitian mother and South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela. He’s also older half-brother of Survivor: Cook Islands contestant Nathan Gonzalez. He was raised in Staten Island, but his upbringing eventually brought him back to Southern California, according to his biography.
2. Selema Masekela loves music.
Selema travelled the world with his jazz musician dad when he was younger. Selema’s own band, Alekesam, shares the name of his first film, which chronicles his relationship with his father and their connection through music, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2012. Interestingly, Selema’s music has been featured on Entourage and House of Lies, with their newest single, “All Is Forgiven”, featured on the season four premiere of the Showtime hit.
3. Selema Masekela started his career as an intern, and it led to quite a few hosting gigs and amazing experiences.
Selema started his career as an intern at Transworld Publications in 1992. He also served as an NBA sideline reporter for ESPN during the 2003-2004 season, and a co-host of The Daily 10, a countdown of the day’s “top 10” entertainment stories, on E! until it was cancelled on Sept 27, 2010. He was also host of both the X Games and Winter X Games on ESPN for 13 years. Following his work with ESPN, he appeared as the host and executive producer of VICELAND’s docu-series, VICE World of Sports.
4. Selema Masekela is involved in many social initiatives.
Not only is he the co-founder of Stoked Mentoring, an organization dedicated to mentoring at risk youth through action sports, but he also serves on the advisory boards of The Lunchbox Fund, a non-profit organization which provides a daily meal to students of township schools in Soweto of South Africa, and The Skatepark Project, an organization dedicated to financing and building high-quality, legal skateboarding parks for kids. He’s also a passionate supporter of the Surfrider Foundation and Life Rolls On.
5. Selema Masekela is also an actor.
He’s appeared in 2015’s Point Break, 2018’s Uncle Drew, a 2020 episode of Sneakerheads and more.
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