Here is an example of a paradox. Laboring long, draining and exhausting days. Shooting in a tricky slum environment for hours on end, with barely any breaks. Exerting yourself both physically and emotionally day after day.

Yet at the end of it all, describing the whole experience as …energizing and refreshing!

That’s what happens when it’s your passion, when this kind of work runs in the family, and when your name is Joyce Musoke.

You might know her as the strong willed and principled Shiku, from the popular KTN drama Better Days, or from the numerous electronic, print and billboard ads across the nation. Her name – Joyce Musoke.

Acting, she says, as well as creativity are in her blood. Coming from an exceptional background of creatives, her pedigree is high. Her father, who has been in acting for many years, is currently starring in the NTV soap Wingu la Moto. With contemporaries such as Paul Onsongo and Tony Msalame, he has had a distinguished career in the arts, gracing not only numerous Kenya National Theatre productions; he has also featured in advertisement campaigns for clients as diverse as Safaricom and Blue Band. Jennifer, her older sister is involved in interior design, while her younger brother, Levi, still at the Daystar University, is amazingly creative and artistic.

27 year old Joyce Musoke comes from a family of six kids, and has been daddy’s little girl from as far back as she can remember. Having grown up in Outer Ring, she describes her upbringing as average and everyday. “I was just an everyday girl, doing the silly things that girls like to do”, she says, “You know, the bladders and katis and everything else”.

It was way back in standard three, while watching a speaking contest that, full of self-confidence, she thought to herself “I can do that, and I can do it better than her”. And even though her first foray onto theatre arts was inarticulate and frighteningly embarrassing – a combination of stage fright, stuttering and getting tongue-tied, she kept at it. To her credit she later went on to scoop numerous awards in high school, including many first place finishes at the Kenya National Music Festivals.

Today, she can boast two seasons on Better Days, a pair of nominations in the Television category of the Chaguo La Teeniez Awards (CHAT), as well as numerous other acting credits. She’s been involved in various local movies, including Backlash, a Cajetan Boy production where, as lead actress, she plays a young girl married to a HIV positive man. She also recently finished off work on the Phoenix Theatre play Absent Friends, where her stunning acting made her receive rave reviews from both theatre lovers and critics alike. You can also catch her on numerous commercials such as those for PSI (for the ZI campaign), Wrigley’s as well huge Nakumatt billboards throughout the country.

She has also been involved in production at some of the country’s leading studios, including Level One Productions and Sisimka Productions, not to mention her previous role as head of television programming at TBN Family Media.

But how does this very charming and beautiful young lady keep her spiritual walk going? She admits,

“I absolutely love to spend time in worship. I love to spend time in God’s presence and I go there as often as I can. Solitude is one of the things that I like, and I find very easy. I can just stay home, close the doors, shut everything off and empty myself to God.”

This Daystar graduate also journals A LOT! She admits that everything about her is wrapped up in her numerous journals – her journal IS her. As such our half-hearted attempt to be granted a peak into her diary is met with nothing more than a hearty laugh. Enough said. Moving on.

She also credits her spiritual growth and maturity to her husband of two years, Yafesi Musoke. Yafesi, yet another artistic persona in her life, is the creative head at Hope FM, as well as the hilarious drive-time presenter of Route 104. Amazingly disciplined, he has had a major influence on her ever since they met way back in 2001.

Like many before her, Joyce’s humility for a long time kept her from wearing the mantle of ‘role model’. Yet increasingly becoming more of a public figure, (we detest the word ‘celebrity’), she does admit that more and more people are beginning to look up to her. These days she has people stop her on the streets and in malls, all wanting her autograph. A smile breaks out on her face as she recalls being stopped by a lady in a supermarket, young daughter in tow, and being beseeched, “Please be a role model to my daughter”.

“I could be a witch for all they know”, she jokingly laughs.

But even though she acknowledges that many people have a hard time differentiating her from her television character, she is deadly serious about being the best role model and influencer she can possibly be.

That’s her – Joyce Musoke. So if you line up behind her at the supermarket queue or bump into her at your ‘car-park fellowship’, please, call her Joyce, not Shiku.

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