Simon Ward

Growing up in Hawke's Bay in the 1980s, filmmaker and animator Simon Ward was obsessed with technology and television. "My dad used to bring home a computer or a video camera, sometimes on the weekend, and I would ravenously use them as much as I can." 

Early experiments in stop-motion animation were done with playdough, and friends at high school were the subjects of his live-action films — shot on a camera from Cash Converters. After a false start on a computing degree, Ward found a much better fit studying a Bachelor of Arts at Auckland University, a double major in Film, Television and Media and History. It was a theoretical degree, with his first on-set experiences coming after graduation. After joking that he would "magically" get a job on Lord of the Rings if he moved to Wellington, that's exactly what happened thanks to a chance encounter with an old friend. 

It set Ward on a path working on film crews for the next decade, largely in the costume department of large-scale productions like King Kong, The Last Samurai, River Queen and The Hobbit trilogy. Throughout the early 2000s, he juggled this work with exploring his own projects, using the money earned film-crewing to buy new equipment.

He fell particularly in love with making music videos, seeing them as a "real bastion of creativity and weirdness". Ward also saw it as a practical way to make films with limited resources but a big reach — as opposed to the large teams and low viewership that could sometimes plague short films. "I did a lot of thinking how to approach making something … finding a way that I could tick away on my own little project, by myself, suited me better. I didn't have to convince anyone to help me." His first music video was a stop-motion animation for The Fanatics in 2004, which got good airtime on music television, a write-up in youth culture magazine Pavement, and an offer from Shihad to make two videos for them. The ball was rolling! Only two years later Ward's video for OdESSA's track 'Promises Promises' won 'Best Indie Video' at the Juice TV Awards. 

Since then, Ward has made over 80 VFX-based music videos — sometimes solo but largely as part of a small team including Kenny Smith, Luke Rowell and Don Brooker. Working with friends is a key part of the process, with his Wellington flat on Majoribanks Street becoming a hotbed of creativity and collaboration in the early 2000s. He frequently made videos for friends Luke Rowell (Disasteradio, Eyeliner), Jessica Hansell (Coco Solid) and Chelsea Lee Nikkel (Princess Chelsea). Other music video clients include Liam Finn, The Ruby Suns, Mokotron, Beastwars, The Phoenix Foundation and even Coldplay. 

Ward made the leap to being a full-time creative in 2010, feeling like he was "going crazy" balancing production crew jobs and his own work. A milestone moment came when Disasteradio's Gravy Rainbow video went viral while he was working 16-hour days on The Hobbit, and he wasn't able to enjoy or capitalise on the moment. 

"I was getting texts from Luke Disasteradio of the view count going up, on my Nokia phone — 'IT'S AT 10,000!' then, 'IT JUST GOT TO 24,000!!!' … that was the moment when I decided it would be healthier for me to just try and eat beans and rice for the foreseeable future and try to make wacky videos full-time."  

Ward's friendship with Jessica Hansell led to him animating and co-directing Aroha Bridge, which had originated as a comic strip written and sometimes illustrated by Hansell. Across three seasons, Aroha Bridge has grown from a short-form web series to a 30-minute television show produced by Piki Films, garnering awards and rave reviews.

 "Humour and animation aren't mutually exclusive ... But the marriage of the two in Aotearoa — from the perspective of a bloody talented, multi-disciplinary, SaMāoriDeutsch, Capricorn wahine — is novel and under-exhausted." wrote Miriama Aoake, reviewing season two for Pantograph Punch. While Alex Behan described season three as "a spectacular achievement" in his review for Stuff, stating that "local animation will never be the same".

Another Jess — visual artist Jess Johnson — has been a huge part of Ward's creative life, this time in the art world. Ward transforms Johnson's drawings into animated video and immersive experiences that have screened in museums, planetariums and even on the sides of buildings, as well as having been nominated for prestigious art award The Walters Prize. Their 2023 show XYZZY, a "psychedelic musical odyssey", played at planetariums across Aotearoa, as well as in Australia, the US and the UK. 

Ward is still based in Wellington and works across music videos, immersive experiences, industry mentoring and occasional VFX work in film (Deathgasm, Hunt for the Wilderpeople). 

"I've loved making things that provide out of the ordinary and fantastical experiences for people… I'd like to keep doing that."

Profile written by Rosie Howells, published on 10 December 2025

Sources include
Simon Ward
Miriama Aoake, 'A Crock-pot of Crack-ups: On Aroha Bridge', The Pantograph Punch, 9 September 2019
Alex Behan, 'Why Kiwi animation will never be the same after Aroha Bridge', Stuff, 25 July 2019