HOME
*





Nicola Kawana
Nicola Kāwana (born 1970) is a New Zealand actress, best known for playing Huia Samuels on the longest running New Zealand television series ''Shortland Street''. Other roles include ''Mercy Peak'', ''Jackson's Wharf'', Lollie in ''The Man Who Lost His Head'' and “Mad” Maggie in ''Apex Legends''. Career Kāwana was born in Taranaki, and was part of Taranaki Youth Theatre. She did actor training at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School graduating in 1994. As of 20 August 2006, the character Huia Samuels has been written out of ''Shortland Street''. It was reported that Kāwana was very angry with the decision. However, the story that appeared went to print based on gossip. Kāwana was unable to give her side of the story due to the legal constraints of her contract to South Pacific Pictures, the makers of the serial programme. July 2021 was the premier of a play Kāwana wrote called ''Kūpapa.'' This play is about an ancestor of Kāwana's, Lucy Takiora Lord Lucy T ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Lucy Takiora Lord
Lucy Takiora Lord (9 October 1842 – 3 September 1893) was a New Zealand guide and interpreter. She is known for her role as an interpreter between Māori peoples and English colonizers. She is considered a controversial figure due to her assistance in the selling of Māori land to Pākehā. Biography She was born in Russell, Northland, New Zealand on 9 October 1842. She was the daughter of the Māori Kotiro Hinerangi and the English shop owner William Lord. Lord, alongside her first husband, Te Mahuki, were known as guides and interpreters for Gustavus von Tempsky and British troops during the New Zealand Wars in the 1860s. Later, she acted as an interpreter during land purchases of Māori land. Throughout her life she was known by many names including Louisa Grey, Lucy Elizabeth, Takiora Grey, Bloody Mary, Mrs Blake and Lucy D'Alton. She married Joseph Dalton in 1878 under the name Louisa Grey. Death and legacy She died on 3 September 1893 at New Plymouth hospital. In Ju ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Taki Rua
Taki Rua is a theatre organisation based in Wellington, Aotearoa / New Zealand that has produced many contemporary Māori theatre productions. Taki Rua has been going since 1983 and has had several name changes over that time including The New Depot, Depot Theatre and Taki Rua / The Depot. The full current name is Taki Rua Productions. Since inception the mission of Taki Rua has been to showcase work from Aotearoa. Because of this and the longevity of Taki Rua many significant New Zealand actors, directors, writers, designers and producers have part of the history including Riwia Brown , Nathaniel Lees, Rachel House and Taika Waititi. Background Taki Rua started in Wellington in 1983 when a group took over The Depot, a second performance space that Downstage Theatre had set up a year previously, they changed the name to the New Depot. This collective group was Colin McColl, Jean Betts, Philippa Campbell, Fiona Johnstone, Alyson Baker, Richard Mudford, Phillip Mann and John Bana ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Emily Perkins (novelist)
Emily Justine Perkins (born 1970 in Christchurch) is a New Zealand author. Early life Perkins was born in Christchurch. She graduated from Toi Whakaari with a Diploma in Acting in 1989. She also studied writing at Victoria University of Wellington, Victoria University. Career Perkins first won attention in 1996 with her first collection of stories, ''Not Her Real Name and Other Stories''. Perkins' novels are ''Leave Before You Go'' (Picador (imprint), Picador, 1998), ''The New Girl'' (Picador, 2001), ''Novel About My Wife'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2008), and ''The Forrests'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012). A longtime resident of London, Perkins lived in Auckland where she was employed by both The University of Auckland as a creative writing tutor and AUT University as a lecturer. She now lives in Wellington, where she is a senior lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington International Institute of Modern Letters. Perkins presented a television series about books calle ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Sam Sneddon
Sam, SAM or variants may refer to: Places * Sam, Benin * Sam, Boulkiemdé, Burkina Faso * Sam, Bourzanga, Burkina Faso * Sam, Kongoussi, Burkina Faso * Sam, Iran * Sam, Teton County, Idaho, United States, a populated place People and fictional characters * Sam (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sam (surname), a list of people with the surname ** Cen (surname) (岑), romanized "Sam" in Cantonese ** Shen (surname) (沈), often romanized "Sam" in Cantonese and other languages Religious or legendary figures * Sam (Book of Mormon), elder brother of Nephi * Sām, a Persian mythical folk hero * Sam Ziwa, an uthra (angel or celestial being) in Mandaeism Animals * Sam (army dog) (died 2000) * Sam (horse) (b 1815), British Thoroughbred * Sam (koala) (died 2009), rescued after 2009 bush fires in Victoria, Australia * Sam (orangutan), in the movie ''Dunston Checks In'' * Sam (ugly dog) (1990–2005), voted the world's ugliest dog in 2 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Colin McColl (director)
Colin William McColl is a New Zealand director in theatre, opera and television. He is a leading figure in the world of professional theatre in the country, winning numerous awards as well as working internationally with major national companies. McColl's career spans more than 30 years in the performing arts where he has also been an actor and a producer. He has won Best Director at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards three times, received the prestigious Arts Laureate Award in 2007 and was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2010. McColl was born in Lower Hutt in Wellington, the country's capital. Since 2003, he has been the artistic director of Auckland Theatre Company, this tenure ends after 18 years in 2021. Career As a theatre director, McColl has directed more than 50 plays. He is the only New Zealand director who has been invited to showcase a production at the official Edinburgh Festival. Award winning productions include ''A Doll’s House'' (1993), ''R ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Bruce Mason
Bruce Edward George Mason (28 September 1921 – 31 December 1982) was a significant playwright in New Zealand who wrote 34 plays and influenced the cultural landscape of the country through his contribution to theatre. In 1980, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The Bruce Mason Playwriting Award, one of the most important playwrighting accolades in New Zealand, is named in his honour. Mason was also an actor, critic, and fiction writer. Mason's most well known play is ''The End of the Golden Weather'', a classic work in New Zealand theatre, which he performed solo more than 500 times in many New Zealand towns. It was made into a feature film directed by Ian Mune in 1991. Another significant play is ''The Pohutukawa Tree'' written during the 1950s and 1960s. ''The Pohutukawa Tree'' was Mason's first major success and explored Māori and Pākehā themes, a common thread in most of his works. Theatre was an avenue for Mason to highlight social a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Dave Armstrong (playwright)
Dave Armstrong (born 1961) is a New Zealand playwright, screenwriter, trumpet player and columnist for '' The Dominion Post''. His work has featured on stage, radio and television. His television writer credits include ''Spin Doctors'', ''Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby'', ''Great War Stories'', and script editor for bro'Town. Armstrong states: Just about everything I have learnt about literary and dramatic structure has a parallel in classical music composition. Good dialogue has a rhythm, so if you have a musical ear you can hear it when it works. ''Niu Sila'' In 2004 Dave Armstrong and Oscar Kightley co-wrote the play ''Niu Sila'', about the friendship between a Samoan and a Palagi boy in 1960s New Zealand. It premiered at Downstage Theatre, and went on to win the 2004 Chapman Tripp Theatre Award for Best New New Zealand Play. In 2006 Armstrong and Oscar Kightley received the Arts Foundation of New Zealand Award for Patronage, for ''Niu Sila'' which they co-wrote. In her New ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Christian Penny
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χριστός), a translation of the Biblical Hebrew term ''mashiach'' (מָשִׁיחַ) (usually rendered as ''messiah'' in English). While there are diverse interpretations of Christianity which sometimes conflict, they are united in believing that Jesus has a unique significance. The term ''Christian'' used as an adjective is descriptive of anything associated with Christianity or Christian churches, or in a proverbial sense "all that is noble, and good, and Christ-like." It does not have a meaning of 'of Christ' or 'related or pertaining to Christ'. According to a 2011 Pew Research Center survey, there were 2.2 billion Christians around the world in 2010, up from about 600 million in 1910. Today, about 37% of all Christians live in the Ameri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Witi Ihimaera
Witi Tame Ihimaera-Smiler (; born 7 February 1944) is a New Zealand author. Raised in the small town of Waituhi, he decided to become a writer as a teenager after being convinced that Māori people were ignored or mischaracterised in literature. He was the first Māori writer to publish a collection of short stories, with ''Pounamu, Pounamu'' (1972), and the first to publish a novel, with ''Tangi'' (1973). After his early works he took a ten-year break from writing, during which he focused on editing an anthology of Māori writing in English. From the late 1980s onwards he wrote prolifically. In his novels, plays, short stories and opera librettos, he examines contemporary Māori culture, legends and history, and the impacts of colonisation in New Zealand. He has said that "Māori culture is the taonga, the treasure vault from which I source my inspiration". His 1987 novel '' The Whale Rider'' is his best-known work, read widely by children and adults both in New Zealand an ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Cathy Downes
Catherine Patricia Downes (born 1951) is a New Zealand theatre director, actor, dramaturg and playwright. Of Māori descent, she affiliates to Ngāi Tahu. Downes wrote a one-woman play ''The Case of Katherine Mansfield'', which she has performed more than 1000 times in six countries over twenty years. She has been the artistic director of the Court Theatre in Christchurch and the director of Downstage Theatre in Wellington. She lives on Waiheke Island and works as a freelance actor, director and playwright. Personal life and education Downes completed a BA in English, Politics and Drama at Victoria University, and worked as a programme purchaser and film editor for TVNZ. She then earned a Certificate in Acting from the QEII Arts Council Drama School in 1973. Downes works as a freelance actor, director and playwright, and is based on Waiheke Island. Acting career Downes spent three years acting professionally in New Zealand before travelling to Europe in 1976, where s ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Donogh Rees
Donogh Rees (born 1959) is a New Zealand actress. She starred in the long-running soap opera ''Shortland Street'' as Nursing management#Director of Nursing, director of nursing Judy Brownlee from 2001 to 2006. She starred as Abbie in the sci-fi film ''Starship (film), Lorca and the Outlaws'' (1984), in the New Zealand film ''Constance (1985 film), Constance'' (1985) in the title role, in the film ''Crush (1992 film), Crush'' (1992) as the lead part of Christina, and the film ''Channelling Baby'' (1999). She voiced Necrolai in ''Power Rangers: Mystic Force'', and has appeared in ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' and ''Xena: Warrior Princess''. She has appeared in numerous stage productions. Filmography Film Television References External links * Profile on TVNZShort films starring Rees
1959 births Living people New Zealand actresses {{NewZealand-actor-stub ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Nathaniel Lees
Nathaniel Lees is a New Zealand theatre actor and director and film actor of Samoan descent, best known for film roles in ''The Matrix Reloaded'', ''The Matrix Revolutions'' and '' The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers'' and for starring in ''Young Hercules'' as Chiron the centaur. Acting career Lees was born in Auckland, New Zealand. He was brought up in an environment where Samoan was commonly spoken, so he grew up thinking of himself as being Samoan. He got his first acting job because of "being brown", as the theatre required brown people running around on stage killing Captain Cook. Part of the audition was him walking through the door, and upon doing so, he "had the job". He is known for his role as Captain Mifune in ''The Matrix'' trilogy and his role as "Uglúk" in ''The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers''. He has also had roles on the TV series ''Young Hercules'', ''Hercules: The Legendary Journeys'' and '' Xena: Warrior Princess''. He appeared in '' 30 Days of Night' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]