Veteran actor Alex Mukulu is dead

Veteran Ugandan playwright, actor and director Alex Mukulu has died. He was 72.

Born in 1954, Mukulu built a decades-long career in Uganda’s performing arts as a playwright, actor, director and mentor. He used theatre to examine the country’s politics, culture and social life.

Mukulu became one of the most recognisable figures in Ugandan theatre, with productions that blended drama, music and humour to tell stories about the country and its people.

Among his widely known productions was 30 Years of Bananas, a political satire that examined decades of Uganda’s turbulent political history through theatre, music and humour.

Beyond his work on stage, Mukulu was credited with mentoring generations of actors and helping sustain Uganda’s theatre industry.

His career spanned a period in which stage productions faced declining audiences and growing competition from television and digital entertainment.

Despite those changes, Mukulu remained associated with Ugandan theatre for decades, both as a performer and as a figure who helped nurture younger talent.

His death marks the loss of one of Uganda’s long-serving theatre personalities whose work documented the country’s political and social experiences through the performing arts.