Woodstock-born Gale Shepherd, 64, won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Hairstyling and Make-up for the Netflix documentary series African Queens: Njinga last month.

Ms Shepherd who now stays in Newlands travelled to America for the awards held at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in down town Los Angeles on Saturday June 8 to accept the award.

Ms Shepherd says she never dreamed of winning such a prestigious international award.

“I do feel deeply honoured to have won, but also very aware that the award is really not just for me, but for my whole department, who were amazing, and for the director and producers, who trusted my vision of Queen Njinga’s look,” she says.

African Queens: Njinga which is currently on Netflix is a documentary series which focuses on Queen Njinga from Angola and it features various re-enactments of her reign as well as interviews with experts. Ms Shepherd says she is really proud of the show, especially the Queen Njinga’s look.

“I went to town with a big, regal, sculptural hair design that emphasised her height, working with braids and accessories like beads, stones and shells,” she says.

Ms Shepherd has always been passionate about hair and make-up from a young age.

“From almost as long as I can remember. As a little girl I used to watch my older sisters and aunts doing their make-up before going out, and when they left, I used to try and copy them,” she says.

Her passion led to become a beauty consultant at the Artscape in the 1970’s and from there she grew in experience and in the local entertainment industry until her career took her abroad.

Some of the famous movies she worked on include Mandela and de Klerk which was released in the late 90’s which starred the late Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine in the lead roles. More recent well-known movies she worked on included Noem My Skollie in 2016 and Poppie Nongena in 2019, for which she also won awards for makeup and hairstyling. She won a SAFTA Golden Horn for Noem My Skollie, and a Silwerskerm for Poppie Nongena.

Ms Shepherd still has fond memories of growing up in Woodstock where she used to braai penny polony over the fire, play hide and seek and kennetjie.

Ms Shepherd is currently working on the second season of the local mystery, Recipes for Love and Murder which is expected to be released on DSTV later this year.

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Woodstock born hairstyling and makeup artist wins prestigious award