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BriarGrace-Smith

Ngā Puhi, Ngāti Wai
  • Writer
Briar-Grace-Smith-Key-Profile.jpg

Briar Grace-Smith, ONZM, has written for stage, page and screen. The Listener labelled her 1996 play Purapurawhetu "a new classic of New Zealand theatre". It was later filmed for TV's Atamira. After writing for Being Eve and Mataku, Grace-Smith created quirky TV movie Fish Skin Suit. In 2010 she won a NZ Scriptwriters Award for feature film The Strength of Water, then worked on the scripts of Billy T James TV movie Billy, Margaret Mahy TV series Kaitangata Twitch and movie Fresh Meat. After contributing to 2017 film Waru, she began co-directing an adaptation of Patricia Grace novel Cousins, alongside Ainsley Gardiner. 

Screenography

Cousins
2021 Writer, As: Makareta (older), Co-Director Film
Rūrangi (web series)
2020 - 2023 Director, Writer, Executive Producer Series
I Date Rejects
2020 - 2021 Script Editor Series
Krystal
2018 Director Film

Awards

2018 Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit
For services to theatre, film and television 

2010 New Zealand Scriptwriters Awards (NZ Writers Guild)
Best Feature Film Script: The Strength of Water

“I’m probably telling the same story again and again, and it’s something about the underdogs. They’re the characters that interest me. ”

— Briar Grace-Smith, interviewed in Turbine, October 2003

Related images

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Writer Briar Grace-Smith on Paekakariki beach with her dog 'Tipi', with Kapiti Island in the background.
Kindly supplied by Pic Phil Reid ©The Dominion Post