Veronica McCarthy

Veronica McCarthy's has an extensive background as a programme maker for TVNZ and as an independent producer. Her more than two decades of television and film experience includes production management, public relations, marketing, business planning and relationship building.

In 1995 McCarthy was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to explore the area of children's television internationally. This experience fed into her later work with Raconteur Productions.

McCarthy and director Bill de Friez founded Christchurch-based film and television production company Raconteur in 1996. Raconteur produces documentaries, children's series, health and education programming and drama.

McCarthy produced the arts documentary Between the Lines - Denis Glover, directed by Bill de Friez. Made for the Artsville series on TVNZ, the documentary takes an intimate look at the life of the New Zealand poet through interviews with family, friends and other art notables. It was a finalist in the Best National Medium Documentary category.

McCarthy also produced Madame Morison, a documentary about 2006 Arts Laureate Julia Morison, directed by Sonja de Friez. Ron Brownson, Senior Curator New Zealand and Pacific Art, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki described it as "one of the very best profiles of an artist that I have seen on local broadcast this year".

Raconteur Productions also produces innovative children's programmes.

Animation Stations, made for Sticky TV on TV3, is dedicated to showing off the creative talent of young animators. It sources animations made by children and brings work from bedrooms, kitchens and classrooms into the lounges of the country.

The Big Chair Series is for children 4-9 years. Stories are written by well known NZ authors such as Margaret Mahy, Kate de Goldi, Oscar Kightley, Michelanne Forster, Jack Lasenby, Joe Bennet, Elsie Locke and Tessa Duder, and read by personalities sitting in a large green chair. The illustrations accompanying each story are drawn by 10-year-old children.

Raconteur Productions' four-part television documentary series on male and female genitalia - The Naked Breast, The Naked Bum, The Naked Vagina, and The Naked Penis - presented health information in accessible ways for mainstream audiences.

Veronica McCarthy was a founding member of Screen Canterbury, and is a board member of Screen Production & Development Association (SPADA).