Scott Wills
Scott Wills began his screen career in the early 90s, with appearances in soap Shortland Street and a run of short films. During the same period he toured New Zealand theatres in Trainspotting as drug addict Marc Renton, the role that made a movie star of Ewan McGregor.
On the short film front, Wills was part of the ensemble cast of Kiwis in London tale Permanent Wave. He also appeared in — and co-produced — The Hole, playing one half of a couple who hear voices from a hole they have just drilled. The Hole made it into competition at the highly-regarded Clermont Ferrand Short Film Festival in France, and was invited to a dozen more festivals besides.
In 2000, Wills was nominated for two acting awards at once — one for short film Ouch, which reunited him with the creative team behind The Hole, the other for his supporting part in "clever, funny, slightly mad" romantic comedy Hopeless. In the movie Scott plays Phil, the best friend of the main character, who are both in love with the same woman. Scott later reprised the role in spin-off television series Love Bites.
The film that really brought Scott Wills to public attention was Stickmen, a stylish comedy about three young men about town, who take on all opposition in a pool contest. Wills played the bumbling Wayne, a role which won him the best actor award at the 2001 New Zealand Film Awards. Wrote Listener reviewer Philip Matthews: "At the core of Stickmen is a touching, almost old-fashioned sense of male camaraderie that makes it hard to fault".
Stickmen's success saw it quickly moving into the 20 most successful local features released in New Zealand. It was also the first Kiwi film to sell to England before being completed, in a decade.
Wills followed Stickmen with a run of television appearances, often playing policemen and/or diamonds in the rough. In Street Legal (2000), based around a struggling Auckland law firm, Wills was a reformed drug dealer trying to win access to his daughter.
For Interrogation (2005), the first Kiwi drama broadcast on the Prime network, the actor spent time with policemen from Auckland Central CIB. As detective constable Terry Skinner, he played one of the main roles. The series was centred around the battle of wills that occurs in a police interrogation room.
The ambitious but ill-fated mini-series Doves of War saw Scott playing a former corporal, helping his old SAS sergeant hunt down the members of his squad after revelations of dark dealings back in Bosnia.
Glenn Standring's big-budget vampire feature Perfect Creature put Wills alongside British actors Saffron Burrows and Dougray Scott. Set in an alternative vision of New Zealand, the movie featured another kind of hunt: Wills played the dependable cop who joins Burrows' policewoman character, on the trail of a good vampire gone bad.
Wills showed a different side to his acting — gaining another award in the process — in 2008 family drama Apron Strings. In this tale of mothers and sons, Wills plays Barry, the layabout who is still sponging off his mother (Jennifer Ludlam) at the age of 35.
Otago Daily Times reviewer Mark Orton praised the film: "Apron Strings takes emotive and complex notions of identity, and distills them into a lyrical tale centred on food."
Scott Wills travelled with the film to Canada, after Apron Strings was invited to the Toronto Film Festival. In September 2009 he won a Qantas Film and Television Award for Best Lead Actor, for his work in the film. The same month, Wills began appearing on television as Saul, the troubled head of security in offbeat thriller The Cult.
Throughout the 2010s, Wills continued his speciality of playing police officers; a sexist cop in crime show Safe House, and, respectively, three detectives in series Underbelly, TV movie Stolen and comedy film Pork Pie. But taking a turn on the other side of the law, Wills portrayed the criminal kingpin Spiggs in comedy film Lowdown Dirty Criminals.
In 2023, Wills became a core member of crime drama series The Gone. A co-production between New Zealand and Ireland, Wills plays Sergeant Bruce Harris, a local police officer helping investigate the disappearance of an Irish couple in small-town Aotearoa.
Also a busy stage actor, Wills juggles his screen roles with frequent theatre roles in his home of Tāmaki Makaurau.
Profile updated on 31 October 2025
Sources include
GCM Management
'Scott Wills: A multi award-winner...' (Video Interview), NZ On Screen website. Director James Coleman. Loaded 2010. Accessed 31 October 2025.
Mark Orton; REVIEWS: 'Apron Strings' and 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' (Review), Otago Daily Times website. Loaded 2 August 2008. Accessed 31 October 2025.