Lani Groves

Lani Groves
Lani Groves at Irene Mall in September 2011
Born	Lani van der Merwe Bloemfontein, South Africa
Education	University of Pretoria
Occupation	Teacher, Musician, Actress
Spouse(s)	Matthew Groves (m. 2012)

Lani Groves was born in Bloemfontein in 1980. A musician by trade, she began playing the cello and singing at the age of five years. Lani performs regularly at musical events across the Gauteng region in South Africa.

In 2004, Lani played a bar-lady in “The Res” by Franz Marx, after which she played various characters for South African television programmes such as "Society", "7de Laan" and "Kompleks" for the KykNet channel.

From 2006 to 2011, Lani formed one-quarter of the band Electro Muse - now known as The Muses, an electric string quartet. Lani also previously played as part of band Ménage à Trois as well as performing regularly as a backing artist to a number of other musicians.

In 2009 she starred in a locally produced film The Dykumentary for the Out of Africa film festival.

In 2011, Lani featured as a cellist and backing singer on Laurie Levine’s third album Six Winters and contributed to a band called Tango Loca specialising in Argentinian Tango and French cafe style music.

In 2012 Lani became a semi-permanent partner to Laurie Levine at live events, shows, and gigs.

In 2012, alongside actor and musician Tiaan Rautenbach, Lani formed a new band called Soozie and the Cheesewagon, specialising in acoustic blues.

In 2016, following a move in 2015 to the Garden Route, Lani's website was updated. Lani now plays gigs along the garden route on a regular basis.