The Proteas fast-bowler who has taken more than 550 wickets and became a filmmaker

South African fast bowler Kagiso Rabada has taken 575 wickets for the Proteas in his test cricketing career, which began in 2015, and he’s still going strong while working on other ventures.
Most recently, he took five wickets on the first day of the World Test Cricket final between the Proteas and Australia, played at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London, England.
The achievement earned him his second inscription on the Lord’s Honours Boards, and the Proteas went on to win the final with five wickets to spare.
When he is not playing cricket, Rabada is a producer and creative force at Kingdom Kome Productions, where he is also a co-founder.
The company produces short films, such as Ring of Beasts and Dinner to Die For, the former of which was a nominee for Best Short Film at the South African Film and Television Awards.
Rabada was born to parents Mpho and Florence in Johannesburg on 25 May 1995. He spent his first three years living primarily in the Mamelodi township near Pretoria and Johannesburg’s West Rand.
Most of this time was spent living with his paternal grandparents — an arrangement that allowed his parents to complete their studies.
His father, Mpho, pursued medicine at the University of the Witwatersrand, while his mother, Florence, pursued law.
After his parents completed their studies and secured employment, Rabada moved to Bryanston in Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, where he attended Bryanston Parallel Medium Primary School.
He attended St Stithians College in Bryanston during High School, where he discovered his talent for sports.
Speaking to the Sunday Times in 2018, Rabada recalled his time playing for the school’s first soccer team, and reminisced about his Diego “hand of god” Maradona moment.
“I played for the first time in high school,” he told the Sunday Times. “I remember I scored one with my hand and the ref allowed it.”
He explained that it wasn’t intentional, as he had jumped to head a ball which was just out of reach, and ended up palming it into the goal.
Natural cricketing instinct

Rabada played some rugby while in primary school and high school. He recalls making his primary school’s rugby team, which was coached by a Mr Smit who also coached the cricket team.
“I was passing a rugby ball around on the first day of cricket practice when a friend of mine came running down, saying ‘Mr Smit wants you to try cricket’,” Rabada told The Cricket Monthly.
“I thought: ‘let’s go give it a shot’.” He explained that, despite not knowing much about the technical side of cricket, he turned out to be a natural at the sport. He said he played a lot on instinct.
“I just played out of instinct. I did not put my mind to it. I played instinctively. I feel like I am only learning my cricket now,” he told the Sunday Times.
With an ambition for cricket, Rabada earned a sports scholarship at St Stithians. In Grade 10, he opted out of rugby to focus on cricket.
After completing his final matric exam, his attention shifted to cricket full-time. He realised he wanted to play international sports and saw cricket as the sport he would likely advance in.
In 2014, Rabada travelled to Australia with South Africa’s under-19 cricket team to participate in the under-19 Cricket World Cup, which his team won.
His outstanding performance at the Cricket World Cup propelled him into professional cricket. After claiming the second-most wickets in the tournament, he was recognised as the team’s best bowler.
He was described as “the fastest and most feared bowler in the competition”, according to ESPNcricinfo. His performance saw him signed to the Lions franchise that same year.
In late 2014, Rabada made his international debut for the Proteas against Australia in the T20 format, before making his one-day international (ODI) debut against Bangladesh in July 2015.
He achieved the best figures, taking six wickets for just 16 runs, during the match against Bangladesh, and became the second player to take a hat-trick during their ODI debut.
Rabada debuted in international test cricket in November 2015, when he joined the Proteas to play against India.
England’s test team toured South Africa in the 2015-2016 season, and in the tour’s fourth test, he became the second South African to take a 10-wicket haul in a match.
His figures of 13 wickets for 144 runs were also South Africa’s second-best ever, behind Makhaya Ntini’s 13 wickets for 132 runs.
Rabada’s second 10-wicket haul came in 2017 when the Proteas played against Sri Lanka in Cape Town. The fast bowler has been a prominent figure in the Proteas side in all formats of the game since.
He became a World Test Cricket champion in May 2025, when the Proteas won the final against Australia at Lord’s Cricket Ground, a match in which Rabada took five wickets.
The achievement earned him his second inscription on the Lord’s Honours Boards, with his first coming after a test match against England at the cricket ground, in which he took five wickets.
Playing cricket and making movies

Rabada co-founded Kingdom Kome Productions with school friend Cameron Scott, marking the cricket player’s venture into film production.
Kingdom Kome’s first project, Ring of Beasts, was screened at prominent events, including the Los Angeles International Film Festival.
It garnered nominations at the British Short Film Awards and won the Best Film award at the 2024 Kleinkaap Short Film Festival.
Ring of Beasts tells the story of two brothers, Romulus and Remus. After being separated and sold into slavery, the brothers are made to fight for their lives on their owners’ behalf in The Ring of Beasts.
Kingdom Kome also produced another short film, A Dinner to Die For, following the success of Ring of Beasts.
The second film tells the tale of culinary photographer Hannah and her friend Evan, who both share a passion for true crime shows.
“When Evan suggests role-playing their own true crime scenario involving a killer meal and the girl next door, things get a little busy,” the synopsis says.
Rabada and Scott also launched a multimedia platform, Zapcast, under the Kingdom Kome banner. The platform features a range of shows and has a growing presence in digital content creation.
Rabada is not only a co-founder at Kingdom Kome; he’s also involved in driving the company’s creative direction, including concept development, production oversight, and storytelling.




