Thabi Mooi (1983, Angola) was born in Luanda as the daughter of a South African father and Dutch mother, who were activists. When she was five years old, the family emigrated to the Netherlands to start a new life. Already as a young girl she was passionate about creating stories, through writing, acting, singing, dancing. But it was through meeting her lifepartner Tom Fassaert (who is a documentary filmmaker) she took the final step to start directing and not pursue a career in neuropsychology.
She graduated from the Theatre School in Amsterdam in 2012 with a hybrid location performance 'Roerend stil' (loosely based on 'Stirrings Still' by Samuel Beckett), in which she took the audience on a journey of an old man, on his way to his end. Since her graduation, Thabi has strived to create location performances in which the audience is invited to play an active role. To open the ears, eyes and hearts of people she combines audio, films and music in her projects, that can take the form of a performance, installation, audio-walk, podcast, film, or even a ritual.
The starting point in Thabi's work are individual stories, that personally affect her, and then she looks for suitable forms to elevate these stories into an intimate and universal experience. She is passionate about documentary stories that are grounded in reality and at the same time are floating in a magical universe.
The last couple of years, she is inspired to work more personal. For example she is developing on a documentary film (In your shadow) about the complex relationship between her and her father. And she is working on a podcast serie (Mixed feelings) in which she explores her identity as a mixed person living in the Netherlands.
Currently Thabi is artistic director of her company 'Homunculus'. and she is living in Amsterdam with her partner and two children.