Chelsea Jane Winstanley (born 30 January 1976) is a New Zealand film producer. She produces short films and documentaries which celebrate Indigenous peoples. She also produced the films ''

What We Do in the Shadows ''What We Do in the Shadows'' is a 2014 New Zealand mockumentary horror comedy film written and directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi and the first installment in the ''What We Do in the Shadows'' franchise. The film also stars Clem ...

'' and ''

Jojo Rabbit ''Jojo Rabbit'' is a 2019 comedy-drama film written and directed by Taika Waititi, adapted from Christine Leunens's 2008 book ''Caging Skies''. Roman Griffin Davis portrays the title character, Johannes "Jojo" Betzler, a ten-year-old Hitler ...

''.

Career

Chelsea Jane Winstanley was born on 30 January 1976, in

Tauranga Tauranga () is a coastal city in the Bay of Plenty region and the fifth most populous city of New Zealand, with an urban population of , or roughly 3% of the national population. It was settled by Māori late in the 13th century, colonised by ...

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. She is the daughter of John Winstanley, a home renovator, and Cherry Wilson, a psychotherapist. Chelsea Winstanley's paternal grandfather was John James Winstanley (1905–1977), an ice cream vendor, born in Wigan, Lancashire, England. Winstanley's paternal grandmother Sophia Millerstone Rowe (nee MacDonald) (1914–1961) was the daughter of James MacDonald and Caroline Creed of Inverness, Scotland. Winstanley's maternal grandmother was Kiritapu "Kitty" Wilson (nee Borell) (1926–2014). Winstanley has

Ngāti Ranginui Ngāti Ranginui is a Māori iwi (tribe) in Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends from Waihi in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, to south of Te Puke in the south, and to Tauranga in the east. The rohe does not exten ...

and

Ngāi Te Rangi Ngāi Te Rangi or Ngāiterangi is a Māori iwi, based in Tauranga, New Zealand. Its rohe (tribal area) extends to Mayor Island / Tuhua and Bowentown in the north, to the Kaimai Range in the west, south of Te Puke and to Maketu in the east. Ngāi ...

ancestry through her mother. She has produced short films such as ''Meathead'', ''Ebony Society'' and ''Night Shift''. In 2014, she co-produced ''What We Do in the Shadows'' with

Taika Waititi Taika David Cohen (born 16 August 1975), known professionally as Taika Waititi ( ), is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at t ...

and

Jemaine Clement Jemaine Atea Mahana Clement (born 10 January 1974) is a New Zealand actor, comedian, musician and filmmaker. He has released several albums with Bret McKenzie as the musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, and created a comedy series of the ...

. She also co-produced ''Te Whakarauora Tangata'' and a documentary about Merata Mita. In 2017, Winstanley created the film production company

Matewa Media Matewa Media is a New Zealand production company that dubs Disney animated films into the Māori language. Productions ''Moana Reo Māori'' (2017) Matewa Media was formed by Tweedie Waititi and Chelsea Winstanley in 2017 after seeing how popul ...

alongside

Tweedie Waititi Tweedie Waititi is a New Zealand film director and producer. The whāngai sister of Taika Waititi, she is best known for her work co-directing production company Matewa Media, which since 2016 has produced Māori language versions of Disney an ...

, which focuses on creating Māori language adaptations of

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

animated films. As of 2020, the company has created adaptations of '' Moana'' (released in 2017), ''

The Lion King ''The Lion King'' is a 1994 American animated musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 32nd Disney animated feature film and the fifth produced during the Disney Renaissance, it ...

'' and '' Frozen'' (both released in 2022). She directed the documentary ''Toi Tū Toi Ora'' in 2020.

Awards and recognition

She won the 2014 SPADA Screen Industry Awards Independent Producer of the Year (shared with Taika Waititi). In 2015, Winstanley was the New Zealand Women in Film and Television's Mana Wahine recipient at Wairoa's Maori Film Festival. In the 2022 Queen's Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours, Winstanley was appointed an

Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rend ...

, for services to the screen industry and Māori. Winstanley has won two awards at the

Women in Film and Television New Zealand Awards The Women in Film and Television New Zealand Awards, also known as the WIFT NZ Awards, are a set of awards that celebrate and encourage the achievements of New Zealand women in film, television and digital media. The awards are administered by Wome ...

: in 2009 she won the Woman to Watch Award, and in 2022 she won the Award for Achievement in Film.

Personal life

At age 20, Winstanley had a son, Maia, whom she raised as a single mother. She married New Zealand director

in 2011; they have two daughters. The couple separated in 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winstanley, Chelsea 1970s births Living people New Zealand film producers Ngāti Ranginui people Ngāi Te Rangi people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) New Zealand Māori film producers New Zealand women film producers New Zealand Māori women Waititi family Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit People from Tauranga