DeniseO'Connell

Titahi Bay-raised Denise O'Connell trained at the New Zealand Drama School and performed in the theatre, before taking on her first screen roles in the early 1980s. A frequent face on Kiwi television, she was a core cast member of trucking series Roche (1985) and the TV adaptation of acclaimed play Joyful and Triumphant (1993), and played crusading journalist Sandra Coney in Clare (2000). In 2005 she won her second New Zealand screen award, for edgy Gibson Group series The Insiders Guide to Happiness. O'Connell later became a drama teacher, and spent time as head of the drama department at Queen Margaret College in Wellington.