
Acting
Ian Roberts
Born 1951-11-30 · Fort Beaufort, South Africa
Ian Roberts is a South African actor, playwright and singer best known to television viewers for his roles in the drama series Arende and Snitch, and as the character Boet in a series of long-running advertisements for Castrol motor oil. Roberts was born in Fort Beaufort in the Eastern Cape and raised on a citrus farm near the town. He attended St. Andrew's Preparatory School and St. Andrew's College in Grahamstown. After completing high school he performed his compulsory national service in the South African Army, which he completed in 1971. After a variety of different jobs and a course in photography at the Port Elizabeth Technical College from 1973 to 1975, Roberts enrolled at Rhodes University in 1976 for a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Speech, Drama and Social Anthropology. Ian Roberts has built up an extensive acting career in theatre, television and film. Roberts was married to South African actress Michele Botes, but the couple divorced in 1999. They have two children.
Acting credits
7.2A young girl from London moves to Africa with her parents where she befriends a lion cub.
Mia and the White Lion
2018
5.6When Gummer is hired to capture a deadly creature terrorizing South Africa, he and his new sidekick, Travis Welker, engage in another battle of survival against the fiercely aggressive Graboids.
Tremors 5: Bloodlines
2015
7.5PK, an English orphan terrorized for his family's political beliefs in Africa, turns to his only friend, a kindly world-wise prisoner, Geel Piet. Geel teaches him how to box with the motto “fight with your fists and lead with your heart”. As he grows to manhood, PK uses these words to take on the system and the injustices he sees around him - and finds that one person really can make a difference.
The Power of One
1992
4.4Dolph Lundgren is Christian Erickson, a leading demolition expert trained to disarm mine fields in a humanitarian minesweeping operation in Angola. His son is killed and he discovers that mines are being planted during the war to kill people in the area.
Sweepers
1998
6.9A young South African boy from the Johannesburg ghetto named Tsotsi, meaning Gangster, leaves home as a child to get away from his helpless parents. Now a teenage thug, Tsotsi finds a baby in the back seat of a car he's just stolen. He decides that it is his responsibility to care for the infant and in the process learns that maybe the criminal life isn’t the best way.
Tsotsi
2005
5.4Inspired by the true story of indomitable Kuki Gallmann, the film tells of a beautiful and inquisitive woman who had the courage to escape from her comfortable yet monotonous life in Italy to start anew in the African wilderness with her son, Emanuele, and her new husband, Paolo. Gallmann faces great danger there but eventually becomes a celebrated conservationist.
I Dreamed of Africa
2000
4.3Tarzan returns to his homeland of Africa to save his home from destruction.
Tarzan and the Lost City
1998
6.8A South-African preacher goes to search for his wayward son who has committed a crime in the big city.
Cry, the Beloved Country
1995
5.8Sarah Barcant, a lawyer in New York City who grew up in South Africa, returns to her childhood dwelling place to intercede for Alex Mpondo, a Black South African politician who was tortured during apartheid.
Red Dust
2004
6.0Robey Leibbrandt was a South African boxer who became fascinated with Nazi ideology during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. In1939 he led an operation to overthrow the pro-Allied government of General Jan Smuts.
The Fourth Reich
1990
5.9A three-paneled look at the worldwide AIDS crisis: in Montreal, a porn actor schemes to pass his mandatory blood test; a young nun makes a personal sacrifice for the benefit of a South African village; in rural China, a black market operative posing as a government-sanctioned blood drawer jeopardizes an entire village's safety
3 Needles
2005
4.5Jane and the Colonel must journey to Africa to the lost city to retrieve the diamonds before the Nazis do. Comedy based on the popular wartime comic strip.
Jane and the Lost City
1987
4.8A South African political prisoner is tortured to obtain information on apartheid conspirators. Ten years later, the head officer in charge of the questioning is similarly held as prisoner and questioned about his past offenses.
Inside
1996
7.0Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine both received Emmy nominations for their performances in this made-for-TV movie. The plot follows Nelson Mandela's 27-year struggle to end apartheid.
Mandela and de Klerk
1997
7.3A 70-year old man abducts his dementia-suffering wife from her retirement home and goes on the run from both the police and his adult children.
A Kind of Madness
2025
NRThis is a story of a talented and ambitious musician who faces a major crossroads in his life. Paul’s career has progressed to the point where he plays his own music in pubs, but he has struggled to go beyond that. It is a hand-to-mouth existence and Paul and his girlfriend, Sera, struggle to keep the bank balance in check. However, one day an important music producer sees Paul play and, realizing he has talent, offers him a big contract. Paul throws caution to the wind and signs the deal, certain that this is his big break. Unfortunately, the fine print in the contract stipulates that Paul make the kind of commercial music he vowed he never would, and also forces him to act under a stage name. Now, Paul must decide if he is willing to sell his soul for financial stability. And whatever he decides, he realizes that it will have a lasting effect on his career and on his life.
Musiek Vir Die Agtergrond
2013
7.3Follows the deterioration of an Afrikaner family isolated and shunned in the small community of Toorwater. Nothing seems to happen. Then a circus train loses its way and comes to rest in Toorwater, and a mysterious clown brings fresh magic to the stagnating family, but he also poses a threat to the rest of the community.
Paljas
1998
4.1A cop tries to stop a scientist's experiments to turn students into cyborg-mercenaries.
Cyborg Cop III
1995
7.0Set on a game reserve in Africa. Askari is an angry old elephant, the only survivor of the "A' family group which has been anhilitated in a government cull and he has turned rogue. Involved in the culling are Patrick Khumalo, a corrupt government official and Ribshaw, an unscrupulous white poacher accompanied by Ndhlovu, an old African tracker who is being blackmailed by Ribshaw. Anxious to save the elephants are game warden Joss Mckinley and his conservationist wife Paula who is studying and monitoring various family groups of elephants. When Paula's sixteen year old niece Emma Crawshay is orphaned she is sent to live with her aunt and uncle at Morena Game Park. She feels alienated but is gradually drawn into her aunt's passion for her work and her favourite elephant family the 'O' group, in particular a calf named Ollie.
Askari
2001
5.1Rugby hero, Wimpie Koekemoer, and his wild friends return to our screens in the third instalment of the successful Bakgat! movies. Newly engaged couple, Wimpie and Katrien, move to London where Wimpie has received a contract to play rugby. However, he has to face stark reality when he arrives and realises that his dreams of fame and fortune were only an illusion. His apartment is everything but the palace he had imagined - and his teammates make his life unbearable from the get go.
Bakgat 3
2013
5.9Military-Comedy. Sequel to "Boetie gaan border toe". Boetie (Translated into English as 'Buddy' or "Brother") wants to win his girlfriend Liza back, who just dumped him. With the help of some money, he engineers that she is assigned as reporter to the planned manoeuvres, where he would love to impress her. However, things turn out different as Buddy and his comrades are assigned to do the manual labour during the manoeuvres, and the arrogant Captain humiliating them turns out to be Liza's new boyfriend. But when a bunch of criminal madmen disturb the manoeuvre and take a hostage, it is up to Buddy and his comrades to rescue the hostage, their honour - and the girl's love.
Wild Maneuvres
1985
6.0Kalahari Harry is a noble story of the plight of the Kalahari bushman in their struggle for land and survival. A rich Johannesburg business man Mr. Kowalski is sent to the Northern Cape (home of the indigenous bushman), to asses the potential of building a state-of-the-art casino. Kalahari Harry, a member of the local Bushman tribe is decidedly opposed to this corporate move and sets into motion a series of ingenious plans to prevent this from happening.
Kalahari Harry
1994
5.7Katrien (Cherié van der Merwe) is dumped by her boyfriend, high school rugby star Werner (Altus Theart), so he can focus his energy on the sport. To get even, she makes a bet with her friends that she can make a star out of the school's dorkiest boy, 'Wimpie' Koekemoer (Ivan Botha), by pretending to be his girlfriend. The awkward Koekemoer rises to the challenge but Katrien finds herself falling unexpectedly in love with him, until he realizes she is merely using him.
Bakgat!
2008
7.5Van der Merwe, a bumbling farmer from a traditional Afrikaans family, struggles to keep his family together when his daughter returns from England with her British fiancé and family.
Van der Merwe
2017