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Kudzi Chikumbu of Tubi on Always Looking for New Angles
He's 'Sir Candle Man' and so much more
Kudzi is currently vice president of creator partnerships at Tubi. He has been an accountant and tech executive—prior to becoming one of the longest-serving members of TikTok’s U.S. team, serving as global head of creator marketing. Kudzi has expanded his portfolio as a venture capital advisor. He’s been a speaker at business conferences, including Zillow Unlock and INBOUND. He is also the creator of “Sir Candle Man,” a voice in the luxury fragrance world.
We spent two minutes with Kudzi to learn more about his background, his creative inspirations and recent work he’s admired.
Kudzi, tell us …
Where you grew up, and where you live now.
I was born in Harare, Zimbabwe. It was gorgeous. And then we moved to South Africa, where my family settled in Johannesburg—a really fun, vibrant city to grow up in. I moved to Cape Town for university, which is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Now I live in Los Angeles. It’s sunny La La Land, which I absolutely love. The delicious food, diverse population and creative energy here is incredible.
How you first realized you were creative.
I must have been around 7 or 8 when this became clear. I’ve always loved tools that allow for creativity. When I discovered Paint on Windows, all I did was use Paint to create visuals. I discovered Windows Movie Maker, and all I did was imagine things that I could bring to life with a camera and a little webcam. It’s always been a part of me. I always have images and visions and videos and ideas that I want to bring to life.
A moment from high school or college that changed your life.
One of my first jobs was as a talent manager in college. I set up a poster to find some talent and manage them. I remember signing my first guitarist—a singer-songwriter—and we held a show. People actually came. That boggled my mind. They spent money. They loved the show, and they wanted to know when the next one was. I thought, “Wait, this is incredible. You can imagine it, create it, tell people about it. They will come and they’ll spend their hard-earned money.” The entrepreneurial spirit in me was ignited.
Your most important creative inspirations, and some recent stuff you love.
I’ve been so lucky to grow up as a global citizen in Zimbabwe and South Africa, live in the Bay Area for a while, and now Los Angeles. I’ve been able to travel to Asia, Europe and Latin America. I love different sounds of places—the vocal tonality. Voice is very important to me, and that’s a big creative inspiration. Music is huge for me, and things with strong messaging are really important.
Recently, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour—of course, many of us love Beyoncé—but the messaging around it and the iconography is pretty fly. I’ve loved what Olipop is doing with social media influencers and their community—it’s fresh and cool and breaks through the noise.
I’m also in the world of fragrance as Sir Candle Man—fragrance is really fun. When I think about Chanel and Guerlain—legacy luxury brands and meeting people from those teams and understanding the heritage of the brands and how it shows up in every single touchpoint—that’s cool to me. That depth of creativity.
One of your favorite creative projects you’ve ever worked on.
Creating a collaboration candle with LAFCO—one of my favorite luxury candle brands. We created this candle, which was inspired by my travels as a global citizen and the search for honesty. We went deep into what makes vanilla real—really good vanilla—and told this amazing story. I brought it to life in a brief that touched on wanderlust, sunset, fear, searching for truth—and captured that in a scent. It was fun to take my marketing skills and put them into a good creative brief that transformed into a product that sold out on Blue Mercury’s site. It was even awarded one of the top scents of 2023 by Forbes, so that was amazing!
A recent project you’re proud of.
I just launched Not Just One Thing—and am so proud of it. It’s a podcast about how to be a multi-hyphenate in this world where you have to build a portfolio career to survive, given the advent of AI and job paths changing for younger people. It has resonated across age groups. The creative for the actual artwork is so fly—it’s like a textbook that’s a modern-day self-help book brought to life by the designer Wyatt Hansen. It looks great, it sounds amazing and it’s been helpful to people.
Someone else’s work that inspired you years ago.
There’s this agency called BMF that my friend Brian Feit leads. I met him years ago, and they were doing an activation for Colgate with experiential marketing in gorgeous homes in the hills. I thought to myself, “How are they going to bring Colgate toothpaste to life?” It was the most amazing activation with interactive stations, teaching people to love their smile and showing how great toothpaste can make people feel happy and love themselves more. That was one of my entry points into the power of experiential marketing and connecting it to the brand.
Someone else’s work you admired lately.
Krystle Watler—she leads integrated marcoms at TikTok for Business. For their upfront, they did this amazing campaign with Hasan Minhaj and the social team. It felt fresh, business-focused and marketing-savvy. They integrated someone who’s culturally relevant while showcasing the power of that platform for advertisers.
Your main strength as a creative person.
I’m always looking for new angles. I’m willing to do stuff that hasn’t been done before. And I’m always willing to bet on emerging talent. You have to find new voices, the underdogs, people looking for a new creative outlet, because you’ll always get fresh takes.
Your biggest weakness.
I like momentum. I love speed. I like things done fast. But I’ve come to learn that sometimes you need to craft stuff—the podcast took a long time to come to fruition because it’s so well-produced. It’s not just an interview, it’s embedded with insights. I really had to MAKE the show, versus just record and post it. I’ve come to learn that it’s okay to take things a little bit more slowly.
A mentor that helped you navigate the industry.
Maya Watson. She’s the co-founder of Why? She helped refocus my career. Sometimes you need those kinds of people who aren’t just helping you with the technical aspects of the job, but who can help you with your career as a whole. She’s also on the podcast—great episode!
What you’d be doing if you weren’t doing what you’re doing?
Math teacher or a career counselor. I’m a coach and a motivator by nature.
2 Minutes With is our regular interview series where we chat with creatives about their backgrounds, creative inspirations, work they admire and more. For more about 2 Minutes With, or to be considered for the series, please get in touch.
