Kenyan actress Amalie Chopetta has been awarded the 2025 Hermes Award in Entertainment Localisation Excellence for her outstanding voice performance in dubbing Showmax Original Outlaws into Kiswahili from Sesotho and isiZulu.
In a fiercely competitive category, Chopetta triumphed over international heavyweights including The Gentleman and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
In addition to her win, fellow Kenyan voice cast Anthony Kihuria (Outlaws) and Eunice Chacha (Adulting) were also nominated in the category, marking a major milestone for East African talent in global entertainment.
Chopetta, who currently stars in The Chocolate Empire, shared her excitement about the win, saying: “It is such an incredible honour to be recognised on a global stage for work that celebrates our languages and stories. I am beyond grateful to Showmax for believing in the beauty of localisation and trusting me with a role in such a powerful project. This win is bigger than me – it’s a tribute to every Kenyan artist who dares to tell our stories with pride, passion, and authenticity. We are the moment.”
Set in the lush but lawless land on the border between Lesotho and KwaZulu-Natal, Outlaws follows two families at war with each other: the Zulu, cattle-farming Biyela clan and the Basotho, cattle-raiding Ts’eoles. The epic drama series won seven South African Film and Television Awards last year, including Best Telenovela.
M-Net’s Physical Productions team, in association with their partners at TransPerfect, were also nominated in the prestigious Best Overall Dubbing for a Series category.
Now in its third year, the Hermes Awards in Entertainment Localisation Excellence was created by the Entertainment Globalisation Association to celebrate excellence in the art and science of global storytelling, with nominees having to demonstrate exceptional talent and dedication to the art of global storytelling.
The 2025 winners were announced on April 3 and received their Hermie Statuettes at the Hermes Awards Luncheon in Los Angeles, California.
Below are all the 2025 Hermes Awards in Entertainment Localisation Excellence winners:
Best Voice Performance for a Television Series
TransPerfect, Amalie Chopetta in Outlaws Season 1, Swahili, Showmax
Best Voice Performance for a Feature
TransPerfect, Dominique Collignon-Maurin in Sympathy for the Devil, French, Metropolitan
Best Voice Performance for an Animated Series
Iyuno, Alejandra Reynoso in Pokémon Horizons: The Series, English, The Pokémon Company
Best Voice Performance for an Animated Feature
Sound & Vision Studios, Amritesh Pandey in Orion & the Dark, Hindi, DreamWorks Animation
Best Dub Audio Mixing for a Series
Dublavideo, Cross, Brazilian Portuguese, Amazon MGM Studios
Best Dub Audio Mixing for a Feature
Deluxe, Wicked: Part 1, Dutch, NBC Universal
Best Localized Song
Sound & Vision Studios, Thelma the Unicorn – “Just As You Are”, Tamil, Netflix
Best Audio Description for a Feature
International Digital Centre (IDC), Maria, English, Netflix
Best Audio Description for a Series
Red Bee Media, Bluey, English, BBC Studios
Best Script Adaptation for a Dubbed Audio
Deluxe, My Penguin Friend, German, City Hill Arts Content Studios Roadside Attractions
Best Overall Dubbing for a Series
VSI, Citadel Diana, English, Amazon MGM Studios
Best Overall Dubbing for a Feature
TransPerfect, The Count of Monte-Cristo, Castilian Spanish, Beta Films
Best Overall Dubbing for an Animation
EVA, Wild Robot, Castilian Spanish, Universal Pictures
Best Subtitling for a Television Series
Deluxe, Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power Season 2, Castilian Spanish, Amazon MGM Studios
Best Subtitling for a Feature
Deluxe, Twisters, French, Warner Bros. Discovery
Technical Achievement
XL8, EventCAT: AI-powered Live Localization Platform
Lifetime Achievement Honoree
Ramki Sankaranarayanan
