Kura Leigh Forrester (born 1985) is a New Zealand comedian, actor and writer. In 2019, she won the
Billy T Award
The Billy T Award is a New Zealand comedy award recognizing up-and-coming New Zealand comedians with outstanding potential. It has been presented annually since its inception in 1997 when Cal Wilson and Ewen Gilmour shared the award. The Billy T ...
for best emerging comedian, for her show ''Kura Woulda Shoulda''. She currently appears as core cast member Desdemona Schmidt on prime-time soap opera ''
Shortland Street
''Shortland Street'' is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera centring on the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital, first broadcast on TVNZ 2 on 25 May 1992. It is New Zealand's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously ...
''.
Biography
Forrester was born in
Lower Hutt, Wellington to parents Amos (
Ngāti Porou
Ngāti Porou is a Māori iwi traditionally located in the East Cape and Gisborne regions of the North Island of New Zealand. Ngāti Porou is affiliated with the 28th Maori Battalion and has the second-largest affiliation of any iwi in New Zealand ...
) and Robyn, who is
Pākehā
Pākehā (or Pakeha; ; ) is a Māori term for New Zealanders primarily of European descent. Pākehā is not a legal concept and has no definition under New Zealand law. The term can apply to fair-skinned persons, or to any non-Māori New Ze ...
. Her early years were divided between
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
and
Dunedin
Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...
. She attended high school at
Wellington Girls' College
Wellington Girls' College was founded in 1883 in Wellington, New Zealand. At that time it was called Wellington Girls' High School. Wellington Girls' College is a year 9 to 13 state secondary school, located in Thorndon in central Wellington.
H ...
, where she was involved in drama productions and the
kapa haka
Kapa haka is the term for Māori action songs and the groups who perform them. It literally means 'group' () and 'dance' (). Kapa haka is an important avenue for Māori people to express and showcase their heritage and cultural Polynesian identi ...
roopu
Roopu or Rōpū is a Māori word for an organisation, group, or collective. The term is widely used throughout New Zealand as part of the name of organisations, especially those which have a strong connection with the New Zealand Māori population. ...
. Following that, Forrester studied performing arts at
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...
's
Unitec Institute of Technology
Unitec Institute of Technology (Māori: Te Whare Wānanga o Wairaka) is the largest institute of technology in Auckland, New Zealand. 16,844 students study programmes from certificate to postgraduate degree level (levels 1 to 9) across a range of ...
– graduating in 2005.
She also trained for eight weeks at
Philippe Gaulier
Philippe Gaulier (born in Paris, 4 March 1943) is a French master clown, pedagogue, and professor of theatre. He is the founder of École Philippe Gaulier, a prestigious French theatre school in Étampes, outside Paris. He studied under Jacques Lec ...
's prestigious theatre school in Paris. Among her inspirations, Forrester cites
Rachel House,
Nancy Brunning
Nancy Brunning (1971 – 16 November 2019) was a New Zealand actress, director, and writer who won awards in film and television and made a major contribution to the growth of Māori in the arts. Brunning was of Māori descent from the tribes of ...
,
Miriama McDowell
Miriama McDowell is a New Zealand actor, director and playwright. She is a graduate of Toi Whakaari.
McDowell has a long association with Massive Theatre Company in Auckland, and has both acted and directed for the Pop-up Globe, including direc ...
,
Madeleine Sami
Madeleine Nalini Sami is a New Zealand actress, director, comedian and musician. She started her acting career in theatre before moving to television, where she created, wrote, and starred in ''Super City''. She co-wrote, co-directed, and starr ...
,
Billy T. James,
Kristen Wiig
Kristen Carroll Wiig (; born August 22, 1973) is an American actress, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Born in Canandaigua, New York, she was raised in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and Rochester, New York. She moved to Los Angeles, where she joi ...
,
Tina Fey
Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright. She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1997–2006) and for creating the ...
,
Hannah Gadsby
Hannah Gadsby (born 1978) is an Australian comedian, writer, and actress. She began her career in Australia after winning the national final of the Raw Comedy competition for new comedians in 2006. In 2018, her show '' Nanette'' on Netflix won ...
,
Jackie van Beek
Jackie van Beek (born 10 May 1976) is a New Zealand film and television director, writer and actress.
Early life
Van Beek was born and raised in Wellington and attended Onslow College. She studied contemporary dance at the Wellington Performi ...
and her family – particularly on her Māori side in
Tokomaru Bay
Tokomaru Bay is a small beachside community located on the isolated East Coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is 91 km north of Gisborne, on State Highway 35, and close to Mount Hikurangi. The district was originally known as Toka-a- ...
, a small community near
Gisborne on New Zealand's East Coast.
Career
In 2013, Forrester moved to London for two years as part of her
OE, where she met fellow New Zealand comedian
Jarred Christmas
Jarred Christmas (born 1980) is a comedian from New Zealand who now lives and works in the United Kingdom. He won the Chortle Comedy Award for Best Compere.
Early life
Christmas grew up in Christchurch. He attended an all-boys secondary sch ...
, who invited Forrester to perform at a comedy gig he was running.
[ She returned to New Zealand in 2015 and performed her first solo comedy show, ''Tiki Tour'', as part of the 2015 ]New Zealand International Comedy Festival {{Short description, Annual comedy festival in New Zealand
The New Zealand International Comedy Festival is held simultaneously over three weeks during April/May in Auckland and Wellington. From its beginnings as a 2-day event, the Festival has n ...
.
Forrester has appeared in numerous productions across television, film, and theatre. She had a small role in 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 ...
's mockumentary
A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary.
These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...
film ''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 Clemen ...
'', as a victim of Viago – the vampire played by Waititi. Other feature film credits include ''The Breaker Upperers
''The Breaker Upperers'' is a New Zealand romantic-comedy film written, directed by, and starring Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek. It was executive produced by Taika Waititi. The film is about two women cynical about love, who run an agency ...
'', ''Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses'' and ''Fantail''.
On television, Forrester has had leading roles in ''Auckland Daze'', '' Super City'', ''Find Me A Māori Bride'', ''The Barefoot Bandits'', ''The Adventures of Suzy Boon'', ''Jandal Burn'', ''Golden Boy'' and ''Educators''. In 2019, she joined the core cast of ''Shortland Street'', New Zealand's longest-running drama and soap opera. She plays Desdemona Schmidt, the larger-than-life socialite mother of Angel Schmidt.Amadeus
Amadeus may refer to:
*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), prolific and influential composer of classical music
*Amadeus (name), a given name and people with the name
* ''Amadeus'' (play), 1979 stage play by Peter Shaffer
* ''Amadeus'' (film), ...
'' and ''When Sun and Moon Collide''.BATS Theatre
BATS Theatre is a theatre venue in Wellington, New Zealand. Initially founded as the Bats Theatre Company in 1976, then established in its current form in 1989. BATS Theatre has seen the development of many performing arts talents of New Zeala ...
. The award ceremony was held on 26 May 2019, and Forrester was awarded the Billy T. In doing so, she became the first woman of Māori descent to win the award, and the first Māori to win it since 2004.[ She has since toured the show across New Zealand.
In 2022, Forrester was a contestant on series 3 of Taskmaster NZ.]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forrester, Kura
1985 births
Living people
Ngāti Porou people
People educated at Wellington Girls' College
21st-century New Zealand actresses
21st-century comedians
Unitec Institute of Technology alumni
New Zealand women comedians
New Zealand film actresses
People from Lower Hutt