Marcia Grace Russell (1940 – 1 December 2012) was a New Zealand journalist and documentary-maker.

Biography

Russell started out as a cadet reporter for the

New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

in 1959, then going on to found ''Thursday'', a magazine in 1968. In 1975, she joined

South Pacific Television South Pacific Television (SPTV) was a television channel in New Zealand, which operated between 1976 and 1980. History The channel, then known as TV2, first went to air on 30 June 1975. It was the second national government television channel ...

, presenting the television show ''Speakeasy'' and reporting for ''News at Ten''. She went on to work on award-winning shows such as ''Landmarks'' (1981) and ''The New Zealand Wars'' (1998), for which she received an award in scriptwriting. Russell died on 1 December 2012 after a short illness.

Recognition

In the

1996 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1996 were appointments by most of the sixteen Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other co ...

, Russell was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, for services to journalism. In 2003, she was the inaugural recipient of the Academy of Film and Television Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2014 Dame Rosie Horton and her husband established the Michael and Dame Rosie Horton Prize at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

to remember Russell's life and career.

Publications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Marcia 1940 births 2012 deaths New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire 20th-century New Zealand journalists 21st-century New Zealand journalists