Kolanyane-Kesupile was born in January 1988 in Francistown.[1][2] She is the first transgender person to come out openly in Botswana, which she did in 2013.[3][4][5] Kolanyane-Kesupile attended Clifton Primary School.[2] She went to a boarding school in Durban when she was eighteen.[5] Kolanyane-Kesupile received a bachelor's degree in theater from the University of the Witwatersrand and earned a master's degree in Human Rights, Culture and Social Justice from Goldsmiths, University of London.[6][3] She became a Chevening Scholar in 2016.[3]