From beauty pageant contestant to award-winning broadcaster, international event host and creator of B.YOU, Berla Mundi’s career reflects the changing face of African media.
There is more than one way to tell the story of Berla Mundi.
It could be the story of a young Ghanaian woman who entered the public eye through a beauty pageant and became one of the country’s most recognisable broadcasters, but perhaps the more interesting story is how Berlinda Addardey, popularly known as Berla Mundi, has consistently refused to remain in one professional lane.
Over more than a decade, her career has expanded across television, radio, journalism, live events, conference moderation, brand partnerships and creative direction. Today, that evolution is also reflected in B.YOU by Berla Mundi, her mentorship and career-development initiative for young women.
Her journey demonstrates how the modern broadcaster can move beyond presenting programmes to building a brand, a community and, ultimately, a platform.
From Pageant Contestant to Broadcaster
Berla first gained national attention through the 2010 Miss Malaika Ghana pageant. Rather than becoming the destination, the experience opened the door to broadcasting.
She later developed her television career at GHOne TV, working on programmes including Rhythmz Live, Glitterati and The Late Afternoon Show. Her work subsequently expanded into radio and live-event hosting.
That versatility became an important part of her identity. Berla was not simply learning to present television; she was learning to communicate across different audiences and formats.
Her move to TV3 Ghana expanded that profile further through programmes including New Day, The Day Show, Top Intern and Today’s Woman.
Her career also moved beyond the studio. She hosted on major international stages, including the Global Citizen Festival in Accra in 2022 and Global Citizen’s Power Our Planet event in Paris in 2023.
These appearances reflected a broader shift: from television personality to media professional capable of working across local and international platforms.
Building More Than a Personal Brand
Modern broadcasting increasingly requires more than being comfortable in front of a camera. Broadcasters are expected to interview, moderate conversations, engage live audiences, navigate unscripted situations, work with brands and create content for television and digital platforms.
Berla’s career reflects that change. Over time, she expanded into event hosting, conference moderation, brand partnerships and creative direction. However, building visibility raises another question:
What can that influence be used to create?
For Berla, one answer became B.YOU.
B.YOU: Turning Influence Into Opportunity
B.YOU was created as a mentorship and career-guidance initiative for young women, with a focus on confidence, career development, purpose and personal growth.
Its impact can be seen in practical examples.
An early B.YOU empowerment clinic selected and mentored 30 female tertiary students, with some participants securing internships with organisations including GHOne TV, Anita Erskine Media and Mundi Media Network.
The initiative later moved beyond small mentorship sessions. Berla has described taking B.YOU on a tour of 13 university campuses across Ghana, before eventually developing the concept into a larger conference format.
That progression matters because B.YOU represents more than an extension of Berla’s celebrity.
It marks a transition from using media to build a personal profile to using that profile to create opportunities for others.
The initiative has also produced examples of participants becoming collaborators. Berla has publicly recounted how Thelma, a young woman she discovered through her first B.YOU event, later became her social media manager and helped support subsequent editions of the project.
By 2024, the B.YOU Conference had grown into an event attracting hundreds of young women, bringing together speakers from different professional backgrounds for conversations on leadership, careers, personal development and navigating social expectations.
This gives the project something that abstract discussions about “empowerment” sometimes lack: visible pathways from mentorship to opportunity, and from participation to professional growth.
B.YOU Conference 2026: From Content to Experience
The next chapter is B.YOU Conference 2026, scheduled for 3 October 2026.
Its theme is:
“Rooted in Purpose, Grounded in Authenticity — The courage to live your truth in a world of expectations.”
The one-day conference is designed around purpose, authenticity and personal and professional growth, combining speakers, conversations and practical learning opportunities.
From a media perspective, the conference also illustrates another stage in Berla’s evolution.
She is moving from simply presenting experiences to helping create and shape them.
A modern conference is itself a media production. It brings together staging, lighting, cameras, sound, branding, audience engagement, social media and storytelling. Its influence can continue long after the physical event through the content and conversations it generates.
For a professional whose career began primarily in front of the camera, building such an experience represents an important expansion of what it means to be a broadcaster.
What Emerging Broadcasters Can Learn
Berla Mundi’s journey offers a useful lesson for young African media professionals: a job title does not have to become a career boundary.
A presenter can understand production, a journalist can learn digital storytelling. a broadcaster can understand business and branding and a media personality can build events, communities and original properties.
Her career also demonstrates the importance of building credibility that can travel across platforms.
Television programmes end. formats change. networks evolve and digital platforms rise and fallbut a trusted relationship with an audience can follow a media professional from one platform to another.
From Broadcaster to Platform Builder
Berla Mundi’s career reflects a broader transformation in African media.
The broadcaster of the future may not spend an entire career behind one desk or on one television programme. They may present a show, moderate an international conference, create digital content, work with brands and build their own media or community properties.
Berla’s journey provides a Ghanaian example of that transition.
B.YOU is particularly significant because it shows what can happen when visibility is converted into something more tangible. From mentoring young women and facilitating internships to touring university campuses and bringing hundreds of participants together at conferences, the initiative has gradually turned personal influence into a platform for learning, mentorship, professional connections and opportunity.
Perhaps that is the more important measure of influence: not simply how many people recognizeyour name, but how many opportunities, conversations and possibilities you can create because they do.
By Kwaku Duah Prempeh