Hapela was born in 1974 in the village of Nakapanya, in south Tanzania. He says that when he was 15 years old he was bewitched and the resulting pain meant he could not move from the severe pain in his knees. According to Hapela it was due to the envy of the villagers because he worked hard on the farm and earned a good life. He visited Mganga (the local witchdoctor) and his knees were healed.

After this incident, his grandfather Mruta took him to Dar es Salaam. His grandfather was a Tinga Tinga painter himself and one of the leading personalities in the history of Tinga Tinga. He took leadership of a group of painters after Edward Tingatinga died and he was also co-founder of the Tinga Tinga Partnership.

Hapela worked first as a seller in Mruta´s shop but later he was accepted as a painter in 1995. Since then Hapela has been painting within the Tinga Tinga Cooperative (TACS) except for 5 years when he painted in Zanzibar which is where he got married and fathered his first child.
Hapela says that he paints Tinga Tinga for several reasons. The main reason is that he was born into an artistic family from which he gained inspiration. He was also lucky and able to obtain an education which won him a place at TACS. He states that painting gives him freedom and enables him to express himself.

Mangula Ramadhani represents the “Tinga Tinga new-comers”, a group of Tinga Tinga painters who paint in the Tinga Tinga style but do not have any relationship to the core family of Edward Tingatinga. Although most of these “new-comers” paint anywhere on the streets in Dar es Salaam, Arusha or Zanzibar, Mangula paints directly for TACS.  Mangula is a great football player and he was spotted by TACS who hired him for its football team.  Mangula asked the footballers how to paint Tinga Tinga and they agreed to teach him. In that way many “outsiders” became Tinga Tinga painters.   Mangula was born in Dar es Salaam in 1977 and he started to paint in 1997. He uses thick brushes giving the feeling of robust images which is underlined by strong colours.  Mangula´s paintings are extremely popular due to his great technical ability.

Bavoni was born in the town of Masasi in January 1980. He does not have any relatives among the Tinga Tinga family. His mother is of Makua tribe and father of Mwera tribe. He obtained excellent results in his primary school which meant he was able to go on to study in Secondary school. Unfortunately his family circumstances were not favorable so he had to end his studies.  In 2004 he entered the Tingatinga Cooperative Society and he is now painting the traditional motives with very high quality and precision. He is especially good in painting the fish designs since it requires a lot of concentration and patience.

Saidi Omary is a young Tinga Tinga painter born in 1979 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. He comes from a highly artistic family where at least three of his brothers currently paint in the Tinga Tinga style. One of his brothers, Abdallah Chilamboni is the Chairman of Tinga Tinga Arts Cooperative Society (TACS). His father Saidi Chilamboni started to paint in the early seventies, (a few months after Edward Tingatinga passed away) and was one of founders of TACS in 1990.

Saidi Omary is one of the most skilful Tinga Tinga painters and he often portrays animals in different shapes and colours as though he is capturing a moment of action.  As Vice Chairman of TACS in 2008,Saidi Omary was one of the signatories of the contracts which gave rights to Walt Disney, BBC and other companies to use the art of Tinga Tinga in animation films and commercial products.