About.

Actor, director, music maker and much-loved Play School presenter, Zindzi Okenyo’s life has always been about exploring and discovery, finding new modes of expression.

Her latest project -  Zindzi & the Zillionaires -  is one of her most exciting adventures yet. The debut album - Zindzi & the Zillionaires - for ABC Music is a stunning hybrid of joyful R&B musical grooves combined with songs and themes that every child can love. And of course, good vibes for the parents too!

As the vibrant opening track I’m a Zillionaire makes clear, the kind of riches Zindzi is singing about are the ones that matter most: friends, family, love, sharing, the wonders of nature. With a live band and her fluffy dancing Zillionaires friends on stage, Zindzi has already seen the welcoming reaction from children and parents alike through her performances at VIVID and sold out shows at acclaimed festival DARK MOFO.

Fans of Zindzi’s adult music as singer/songwriter OKENYO – a rich and unique mix of R&B, hip hop and rap – will be thrilled to hear how she brings that same level of songwriting artistry to the world of children’s music with irresistible songs like Move Your Body, Love + Kindness and Confidence. If they had lyrics pitched at an older audience, these are songs which could just as easily have appeared on an OKENYO release.

With Zindzi & The Zillionaires, she again works with co-producer Lionel Towers, her long time collaborator on her music as OKENYO. Composer and musician Harri Harding also features as co-writer on many of the album tracks.

“I started my relationship with music by listening to hip hop and R&B, learning the harmonies of Destiny’s Child. Those songs are complicated and I really wanted this album to give kids the opportunity to hear that kind of music but in an album specifically made for children.”

Born in Australia from a Kenyan father and Australian mother, Zindzi grew up moving around Australia with her greatly influential mother and three older siblings.

“We moved around heaps which can be both difficult and amazing,” Zindzi says. “The difficult part is you have to keep adapting; the great thing is that you become a really adaptable person.  You are open to so many different experiences, meeting lots of different people and seeing different cultures.

“The way I was treated growing up and the way we treat children in our family is with total respect. Now I see my nieces and nephews growing into the most beautiful people, caring and confident, and those are themes that run through the music too. Zindzi & the Zillionaires is about helping children with the kind of emotional grounding that I have had with my family.”

The experience of a worldwide pandemic played a role in the songs too.

“We all had to pare back, to find simplicity, and I think what most people would say is that what matters in the end is family and the people you love.

“We were all forced to think, ‘What do we really need?’ I was born in the ‘80s, grew up without the internet, had lovely days left to my own imagination, running around and being free. This simplicity is what many parents and educators already facilitate so beautifully and a vital part of the album is about encouraging the simple ways you can excite the imagination.”

Zindzi is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in Sydney. Her stage roles include An Ideal Husband for Melbourne Theatre Company and Grand Horizons for Sydney Theatre Company.

She co-directed the highly acclaimed sold out return seasons of Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner and most recently Is God Is for Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Theatre Company. As well as Play School, she is a familiar face on Australian TV screens for roles in series such as Fisk, Wakefield, The Code, Janet King, Harrow, Deadloch and Sisters.  

Craving creative autonomy she began her music career as OKENYO in 2013, releasing her first single Broken Chest. Zindzi’s music career continues to be fuelled by powerful songs such as Woman’s World and Anthropology and in 2022 achieving Platinum status on her guest feature on Best Friend by Doja Cat and Saweetie.

 “As an artist I have been restless at times and always wanted to evolve,” Zindzi says. “Expanding what you do is part of this life, it keeps you passionate and engaged. When I inititally turned to music I thought, ‘If nothing comes of this, it will at least keep me sane.’ 

“It’s been important to me to have an artistic outlet with OKENYO and now for The Zillionaires. That’s where I can express what I am about as opposed to as an actor, creating the psychology of a character. It’s envigorating having all these different aspects of my artistry happening at once."

She says her 10 years as a presenter on Australia’s longest-running children’s TV program is where, through the simple engagement with a younger audience, she learnt how to express herself authentically, without fuss. The skills she learned from working with early learning experts on Play School combined with her vast life experience and skill led her to create Zindzi & the Zillionaires. 

“As adults we have such a great responsibility to guide the next generation. I am the only Black presenter on Play School and before me when I was a baby, I had Trisha Goddard to look up to. At that age seeing someone who looks like you on the screen means everything. Representation is everything”

“I know first hand how much that means to children and parents. That is part of the story of Zindzi & the Zillionaires too. It is a world that welcomes everyone to the party.”