Rose Catherine Lettitia Matafeo (; born 25 February 1992) is a New Zealand comedian, actress, and TV presenter. She was a writer and performer on the New Zealand late-night comedy sketch show ''

Funny Girls Funny Girls is a burlesque cabaret showbar on the North Shore of Blackpool, England, owned by English entrepreneur and businessman Basil Newby. The cast of the show comprise male dancers and drag performers. The showbar is in what was once t ...

''. In 2018, she won the

Edinburgh Comedy Award The Dave's Edinburgh Comedy Awards (formerly the Perrier Comedy Awards, and also briefly known by other names for sponsorship reasons) are presented to the comedy shows deemed to have been the best at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. ...

for Best Show at the

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 dif ...

for her show ''Horndog''.

Early life

Matafeo grew up in

Ponsonby, Auckland Ponsonby is an inner-city suburb of Auckland located 2 km west of the Auckland CBD. The suburb is oriented along a ridge running north–south, which is followed by the main street of the suburb, Ponsonby Road. A predominantly upper-middle ...

, and attended

Auckland Girls' Grammar School "Through trials to triumph" , colours = gold, navy blue , type = State single-sex girls' secondary school (Years 9–13) , established = 1878 , address = Howe Street, Newton, Auckland , coordinates = , principal = Ngaire Ashmore ...

, where she was

head girl Head boy and head girl are student leadership roles in schools, representing the school's entire student body. They are normally the most senior prefects in the school. The terms are commonly used in the British education system as well as in Aus ...

. She has two older brothers. Her father is Samoan and her mother is of Scottish and Croatian heritage. Her parents are Rastas and Matafeo has described her upbringing as "quite relaxed". At the age of 15, Matafeo started doing stand-up comedy through the platform of the "Class Comedians" programme put on by the New Zealand Comedy Trust, and went on to win the "Nailed It on the Night" award at the

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 ...

in 2007. She's been a regular at the festival since.

Career

Since graduating from the "Class Comedians" programme, Matafeo went on to win best newcomer at the 2010 New Zealand International Comedy Festival. She became a host of the popular comedy festival show "Fanfiction Comedy" in 2012. She has had success with her solo stand-up comedy shows at the festival: ''Life Lessons I've Learnt from the 60s Based on Things I've Seen on Television'' (2011), ''Scout's Honour'' (2012) and ''The Rose Matafeo Variety Hour'' (2013). Matafeo 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 ...

, which recognises the potential of up-and-coming New Zealand comedians, for ''The Rose Matafeo Variety Hour'' in 2013, having previously been nominated for her show ''Scout's Honour'' in 2012. Her 2014 show at the festival was titled ''Pizza Party''. In 2015, she performed a duo show at the

with

Guy Montgomery Guy Montgomery is a comedian from New Zealand. He was the winner of the Billy T award in 2014. Early life Montgomery was born and raised in Christchurch, New Zealand. He then went on to study at Victoria University of Wellington. Television Mo ...

titled ''Rose Matafeo and Guy Montgomery Are Friends''. On 25 August 2018, Matafeo won the

for Best Show at the

, for her show ''Horndog'', collecting a £10,000 prize. She was the first person of colour to win the prestigious award for a solo show, and the first New Zealander. Only four other female solo stand-up comedians had won the award before her. She was a TV presenter and host of ''

U Live ''U Live'' was the flagship show of TVNZ U, airing live from 4pm - 7pm daily. The show featured music, interviews, and other general interest content. Viewers were invited to participate via Facebook to vote in psychic readings, take part in disc ...

'', which ran on the

TVNZ U , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solom ...

channel from 13 March 2011 until 31 August 2013, when the channel came to an end. Upon TVNZ U finishing, she took on a new role as a writer for ''

Jono and Ben at Ten ''Jono and Ben'', previously titled ''Jono and Ben at Ten'', was a satirical news and entertainment show hosted by Jono Pryor and Ben Boyce in New Zealand. The show aired on Three on Thursday nights at 7:30pm, and was filmed the night before in ...

'', a satirical news and comedy sketch show. Matafeo co-created and starred in the New Zealand sketch comedy show ''

'' for three seasons from 2015 until 2018. She has been playing the role of Talia in the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

comedy '' Squinters'' since 2018. Matafeo appeared on '' Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier'' as an investigator into worrisome topics, and also appeared with Richardson in ''

8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown'' is a British comedy panel show on Channel 4. The show follows the game of ''Countdown'', but presented in a comedic panel show format seen on ''8 Out of 10 Cats'', with the show being a crossover of the two. ...

'' (S19, Ep1), for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

TV in January 2020. She was a contestant on series three of ''

Richard Osman's House of Games ''Richard Osman's House of Games'' is a British quiz show produced by Banijay (owners of Endemol Shine UK), a branch of Remarkable Television for the BBC. The show is hosted by Richard Osman. It is played on a weekly basis, with four "celebri ...

'' and the ninth series of '' Taskmaster''. Having toured as a stand-up comedian for ten years, Matafeo said in 2018 that she wanted to "take a break from hour long comedy" and instead act more, write more, and also direct. Matafeo went on to serve as director on five episodes of the 2019 New Zealand TV comedy ''Golden Boy''. Matafeo had her US television debut as a comedian on Conan O'Brien's talk show '' Conan'' on TBS on 9 May 2019. In 2019, Matafeo appeared on

Josh Widdicombe Joshua Michael Widdicombe (; born 8 April 1983) is an English comedian, presenter and actor. He is best known for his appearances on '' The Last Leg'' (2012–present), ''Fighting Talk'' (2014–2016), '' Insert Name Here'' (2016–2019), ''Mock ...

's show ''

Hypothetical A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on previous obser ...

'' on

Dave Dave may refer to: Film, television, and theater * ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver * ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film * Dave (TV channel), a digital television channel in the ...

. She currently hosts the podcast ''Boners of the Heart'' with comedian and writer Alice Snedden on the Little Empire Podcast Network. She was a guest on Deborah Frances-White's ''The Guilty Feminist'' podcast and on the '' RHLSTP'' podcast with

Richard Herring Richard Keith Herring (born 12 July 1967) is an English stand-up comedian and writer, whose early work includes the comedy double act Lee and Herring (alongside Stewart Lee). He is described by ''The British Theatre Guide'' as "one of the leadin ...

. In 2019, Matafeo tried her hand at directing for the first time and directed a couple of episodes in the first season of a New Zealand sitcom called '' Golden Boy'' for TV3. In 2020, she returned to the set of ''Golden Boy'' in the second season as one of the supporting cast. In July 2020, Matafeo joined

on the comedy show ''Tiny Tour of

Aotearoa ''Aotearoa'' () is the current Māori-language name for New Zealand. The name was originally used by Māori in reference to only the North Island, with the name of the whole country being ''Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu'' ("North Island and South ...

'' travelling across New Zealand. On 20 August 2020, Matafeo's comedy special ''Horndog'' was released on

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

. In March 2019, it was announced that Matafeo had been cast as the lead in her first feature film, ''

Baby Done ''Baby Done'' is a 2020 New Zealand comedy film. Directed by Curtis Vowell and executively produced by Taika Waititi, written by Sophie Henderson, and starring Rose Matafeo. Plot Zoe is a young woman who discovers she's pregnant. But, acting in ...

''. Her co-star is Matthew Lewis, who played

Neville Longbottom Neville Longbottom is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' book series. He is described as a round-faced Gryffindor student in the central character Harry Potter's year. Throughout the series, Neville is often portrayed as a ...

in the ''

Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...

'' film series. The comedy film is executive-produced by '' Thor: Ragnarok'' and ''

Hunt for the Wilderpeople ''Hunt for the Wilderpeople'' is a 2016 New Zealand adventure comedy-drama film written and directed by Taika Waititi, whose screenplay was based on the book ''Wild Pork and Watercress'' by Barry Crump. Sam Neill and Julian Dennison play "Uncle" ...

'' director

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 was released in 2020. In April 2021, '' Starstruck'', a six-part rom-com created by and starring Matefeo aired on the BBC (UK), HBO (USA) and TVNZ (New Zealand). Co-written by Matafeo and Alice Snedden, the cast included actor Nikesh Patel, as leading man and love interest Tom. Filming for the first series was delayed due to the COVID pandemic, however a second series of the show was commissioned before the first series had even begun filming.

Personal life

Matafeo lives partly in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. When she first moved to the UK in 2015, she shared a flat in

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a district of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, i ...

with comedian

Nish Kumar Nishant Kumar (born 1985) is a British stand-up comedian and television presenter. He became known as the host of satirical comedy ''The Mash Report'', now known as ''Late Night Mash''. He has also presented BBC Radio 4 Extra's topical comedy ...

for a while, before moving in with her then-boyfriend, comedian

James Acaster James William Acaster (; born 9 January 1985) is an English comedian, writer, presenter and musician. As well as appearances on panel shows, he is known for the stand-up specials ''Repertoire'', co-hosting the food podcast '' Off Menu'' and co- ...

. Matafeo was in a relationship with Acaster from 2014 to 2017. She is a fan of

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

and named her cat "Bert Bachacat" after him. One of Matafeo's interests is

mukbang A mukbang or meokbang ( ko, 먹방, ), also known as an eating show, is an online audiovisual broadcast in which a host consumes various quantities of food while interacting with the audience. It became popular in South Korea in 2010, and has s ...

videos (in which the host eats large amounts of food while interacting with the audience), so in July 2018 she decided to make her own mukbang video using takeaways purchased from Double Happy Takeaways in Auckland. It was featured on ''

The Spinoff ''The Spinoff'' is a New Zealand online magazine and news website that was founded in 2014. It is known for current affairs coverage, political and social analysis, and cultural commentary. It earns money through commercial sponsorship and su ...

''. Matafeo is a supporter of the

Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand ( mi, Rōpū Kākāriki o Aotearoa, Niu Tireni), commonly known as the Greens, is a green and left-wing political party in New Zealand. Like many green parties around the world, it has four organisational ...

and was scheduled to host their campaign launch for the 2020 general election, but was later asked to step down from the role. The Green Party said this was due to a miscommunication within the party.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * *
CV at agents' website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matafeo, Rose Living people 1992 births 21st-century comedians Actresses of Samoan descent New Zealand comedians New Zealand expatriates in England New Zealand people of Croatian descent New Zealand people of Samoan descent New Zealand people of Scottish descent New Zealand podcasters New Zealand stand-up comedians New Zealand women comedians New Zealand women podcasters People educated at Auckland Girls' Grammar School People from Auckland