Kip Chapman

Kip Chapman hit the mainstream via 80 episodes on Shortland Street, playing Waverley's country cousin Eltham Wilson. In 2005 he starred in Cannes-invited short, Nothing Special, as a man whose mother thinks he is Jesus. Award-nominated as "ultimate hedonist" Levi in TV drama The Hothouse, Chapman also acted in The Cult, Top of the Lake and The Brokenwood Mysteries. He has been even busier in theatre: founder of the Auckland Theatre Awards, he co-created globetrotting interactive hit Apollo 13 and Hudson and Halls Live!, and directed acclaimed suffrage musical That Bloody Woman.

I love playing someone so completely different to myself. Someone who's confident enough to do things I wouldn't be able to do in real life. Kip Chapman in 2004, on playing Eltham Wilson in Shortland Street