Excellence for Amanda du-Pont, is closely tied to how she was raised, being alive for another day, what she learnt from her family and what she has had to put into building her own business.
Speaking during a Women’s Month segment on the BWSS podcast, the Swazi-born actress and entrepreneur spoke about excellence among Black women, the demands of running a business and the decision she made to step away from acting while she concentrated on Lelive, the skincare company she founded.
Du-Pont said she has always wanted to work in skincare, an interest that eventually became a business. Her first ever creation was in high school, in a biology class where she made a hand cream from scratch.
Lelive was founded in 2021 and takes its name from her Swazi name, Langalelive, meaning “light of the world”.
The brand was created around African botanicals and science-led skincare, with ingredients including marula, rooibos, moringa and other African botanicals used alongside skincare actives.
For Du-Pont, however, building the company has meant making decisions about where her time and attention needed to go.
“I had to step away from acting for as I was creating capital and stepping into corporate meant full attention," she said during the conversation.
The decision meant putting acting projects on hold while she concentrated on the business. She said she is now excited about returning to acting, with projects expected towards the end of this year or next year.
The move between acting and business has given Du-Pont two very different experiences of work.
While she has spent years working in entertainment running Lelive has required her to take on the responsibilities that come with building and maintaining a company.
“Running a business is hard. It needs a lot,” she said.
She also spoke about the role her upbringing played in how she approaches success. Du-Pont said she was thankful for coming from a privileged background and for being raised in an environment that conditioned her to understand what it meant to be a successful Black woman.
That upbringing is part of what she brought into the conversation about excellence. Asked what she defines as excellence in her own life, Du-Pont spoke about the standards she learnt from her family and the way those lessons have influenced her work.
Her comments come during Women’s Month, as the conversation turned to what excellence means for Black women and how those expectations are carried into their careers, businesses and personal lives.
For Du-Pont, some of those lessons began at home. She spoke about being taught from a young age to understand success and the work required to achieve it.
Those lessons have remained with her as her career has moved between acting, entrepreneurship and beauty. Lelive is one of the results of that journey.
The skincare company was built around Du-Pont’s long-standing interest in skincare and a desire to create products that combined African ingredients with modern skincare formulations.
The brand's range includes facial and body products, with African botanicals forming part of its identity.
The company has since expanded beyond South Africa, establishing a presence in the United Kingdom as it continues to grow its market.
For Du-Pont, however, the work of running the business has required more than simply putting her name behind a product.
She said the demands of entrepreneurship were part of the reason she had to make the difficult decision to step away from acting for a period.
It was a decision that allowed her to concentrate on the business at a time when it required her attention. Now, that period is changing.
Du-Pont said she has acting projects coming towards the end of the year or next year and that she is excited to return.
The return to acting comes while Lelive continues to operate as part of her professional life.
She is therefore moving between two industries that require very different forms of work, with entertainment and entrepreneurship both demanding her time and attention.
During the BWSS conversation, she also returned to the idea of grace for Black women and the different pressures that come with being expected to succeed.
Her own experience has included building a career in front of the camera and then taking on the responsibility of building a company.
She acknowledged that privilege played a role in preparing her for that responsibility.
“I’m thankful for my privileged background to be conditioned as a successful Black woman,” she said.
The comment formed part of a wider reflection on the lessons she received from her family and how those lessons continue to influence her understanding of achievement.
Her definition of excellence therefore comes from both her upbringing and the work she has done since entering adulthood.
Lelive has given her an opportunity to build within the beauty industry, an area she said she had always wanted to enter.
Acting, meanwhile, remains an important part of her career, with new projects now on the horizon.
The BWSS conversation comes at a time when Du-Pont is balancing both.
She has spent the past few years developing Lelive while stepping away from acting, and she is now preparing to return to the screen.
For Women’s Month, her reflections offered a personal account of what excellence has meant throughout her life.
She spoke about family, privilege, business, acting and the expectations placed on Black women to succeed.
Running a business, she said, is difficult and demanding. Her own experience with Lelive has required her to make choices about where she puts her time and energy.
She is now making another choice as she prepares to return to acting. The projects may only arrive towards the end of the year or next year, but Du-Pont said she is excited about what is coming.
For now, her career continues to move between the worlds she has built for herself acting, entrepreneurship and skincare.
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