Ramon Te Wake

Born in Dargaville and raised in Porirua, Ramon Te Wake began her creative career as a singer-songwriter, releasing two albums. She made her screen debut in 2004 co-hosting groundbreaking Māori LGBT series Takatāpui, and later directed episodes of Attitude, Kete Aronui and Tagata Pasifika. She has appeared in reality series Queens of Panguru (2017), and played transgender activist Ellie in Rūrangi. In 2023 Te Wake co-directed one-off high school tale Inky Pinky Ponky, with Damon Fepulea’i. The pair reunited to make series The Boy, The Queen and Everything in Between, about an ex-con working alongside his drag queen father.

All of my work has been Māori-focused or queer-focused or led. I think I will always have an element of my culture woven into all the stories I tell, and probably likewise my queer stories. It’s just intertwined into my storytelling expression, but also my expression as a human. Ramon Te Wake on Māori and queer storytelling, in an interview with Voices Magazine, 24 March 2025