Tshepiso Chikapa-Phiri is the CEO and founder of the Known Associates Group of Companies, which include a below the line agency; a design studio; a film production development and finance company; and a state- of-the-Art Film & Television Studio in Gauteng which is under development at the Cradle of Humankind. She is a University of Cape Town Alumni, with 20 years’ experience in Communications, Events, Media & Marketing, TV and Film Producing.

Her career spans from working in international events including the North Sea Jazz Festival and Sithengi Film Festival.

In 2014, she formed Known Associates Pty Ltd (KA) which is a below the line agency that has its own dedicated creative design studio. In 2018 Tshepiso founded Known Associates Entertainment with Dan Jawitz. She has recently reacquired 100% of KAE and has also purchased 100% of Moonlighting Films PTY Ltd, a leading television and film servicing company in South Africa. KAE has produced, ‘uBettina Wethu’ a multi season series based on the Columbian smash hit telenovela YO SOY BETTY LA FEY (adapted as ‘Ugly Betty’ in the US).

Tshepiso was the South African Production Executive on Universal Studios’ feature film production Beast, which was filmed in South Africa Starring Idris Elba, South African actor Sharlto Copley, Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries and the Sony Pictures epic feature film The Woman King starring Oscar Award-winning Viola Davis and South Africa’s very own Thuso Mbedu. She has also produced ETV’s first EVOD feature film Atlantis (2021), John Barker’s The Umbrella Man which had its successful premier at the Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF, 2022) and Fabian Medea’s directorial début feature film Wild Is The Wind which premièred on Netflix.

Tshepiso sits on the board of Media Heads 360 and is a shareholder in the business. She is a trustee of The Smile Artist Foundation and chairperson of the Independent Producers’ Organisation (IPO). Tshepiso is the Managing Trustee of the Gerald Sekoto Trust. She is also on the board of the Cradle Nature Reserve, which controls over 10 000 hectares of land in the Cradle Precinct in Mogale City.