Sally Stockwell

Soon after graduating from drama school Toi Whakaari, Sally Stockwell won a 1997 Chapman Tripp best female newcomer award: for her role as Emmi in post WWII play Taking Sides. Stockwell made her screen debut the same year, with a small part in Gliding On sequel Market Forces, followed by the second Duggan tele-movie, Sins of the Fathers.

Though often cast as the hard-nosed blonde, Stockwell provided early notice of her versatility in her first movie roles: she played a Brazilian bombshell who meets a hopeless romantic in comedy Hopeless (released 2000), while reality-stretching horror tale Irrefutable Truth about Demons saw her channelling the dark side, as the ambitious, manipulative lawyer (and girlfriend of hero Karl Urban) who falls under the influence of cult leader Jonathon Hendry.

During the OE that followed, Stockwell was awarded a summer school acting scholarship with London’s Royal National Theatre Studio. 

Stockwell was nominated for another Chapman Tripp theatre award after returning home: this time for playing the central role of Catherine, daughter of a mathematical genius in David Auburn’s Proof (Circa, 2002).

The next few years marked a busy period of television work, including the second series of Mercy Peak, a role in acclaimed 2004 drama Insiders Guide to Happiness, and Shortland Street.

Stockwell spent four months working on Insiders Guide, in one of her favourite roles since graduating from drama school nine years before. She was nominated for a Qantas Television Award for Best Actress in a Television Drama for her role as Lindy, a tough, rule-breaking TV presenter who loses her job after having an affair with her co-presenter. The character "just continues to plummet until she finds love". Stockwell played another TV presenter in the first season of Outrageous Fortune, this time guesting as the partner of one of Pascalle’s more famous conquests.

Shortland Street saw Stockwell in the part of Lucy Swinton, who wins Chris Warner’s attention during negotiations to set up a plastic surgery unit at the Shortland clinic, before revealing she is much more interested in the evil Dominic Thompson (Shane Cortese).

Stockwell also acted in Disney Channel tales You Wish and Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior. She returned to horror in 2006 with Anglo-Kiwi co-production The Ferryman, joining a sextet who find more themselves caught up in all manner of dark shenanigans, after taking a stranger aboard on a pleasure cruise. Channelling an American accent alongside screen boyfriend Craig Hall, Stockwell enjoyed the spontaneous approach of director Chris Graham, plus the chance to play two very different characters.

In 2010 she acted in Simone Horrocks' debut feature After the Waterfall. Based on a book by British novelist Stephen Blanchard, the film examines how a couple handle the disappearance of their daughter. Reviewing Waterfall, The Dominion Post’s Graeme Tuckett wrote that “Stockwell does some bloody good stuff with Ana”. The character’s marriage with her forest ranger partner (Antony Starr from Outrageous Fortune) begins to fracture after their four-year-old daughter goes missing.

Stockwell also sings with dub funk band Ghostyhead and duo Something Lush, and acted and directed for the stage. She was part of the team of actors who devised ambitious migrant tale The Arrival, which later won seasons in Auckland and Hong Kong. In 2008 Stockwell travelled to France with her script for play Gravity Hotel, which was directed by Roy Hart voice teacher Enrique Pardo. Stockwell also produced and co-starred.

Stockwell has studied voice and physical theatre at the Roy Hart-influenced Pantheatre in Paris. Their philosophy "is that we have the capacity within our voices to express our soul in every shade, from the depths of human despair through to pure, beautiful light". Stockwell offers a range of vocal teaching through her company Vocal Pathways. In 2015 she released her first album, Weightless.  

Profile updated on 6 July 2020 

Sources include
‘Sally Stockwell’ (Interview) TVNZondemand Website. Accessed 10 November 2010
‘Vocal Pathways - Sally Stockwell’ (Profile). Vocal Pathways website. Accessed 10 November 2010
The Ferryman Press Kit
The Irrefutable Truth about Demons Press Kit