She tells her stories in four of South Africa's languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa, and also helps to motivate children to read.

Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe was born on 24 October 1958 in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal,[1] to a Xhosa mother and a Zulu father.

[4] Gcina Mhlophe worked as a newsreader at the Press Trust and BBC Radio, then as a writer and a magazine for newly-literate people.

Still, Mhlophe only began to think of storytelling as a career after meeting an Imbongi, one of the legendary poets of African folklore, and after encouragement by Mannie Manim, the then-director of the Market Theatre, Johannesburg.

Mhlophe has appeared in theatres from Soweto to London, and much of her work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Swahili, and Japanese.

serves as the patron of the ASSITEJ South Africa, the International Association for Theatre for Children and Young People.