StalloneVaiaoga-Ioasa (SQS)

After getting a law and arts degree at Auckland University, Samoan-Kiwi Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa opted to pursue a career in filmmaking. Utilising a decade's experience making television — including various jobs on Tagata Pasifika — he wrote and directed self-funded movie Three Wise Cousins in 2015. The comedy about a young man learning about Samoan life was a hit. Two more Polynesian comedies followed: Hibiscus and Ruthless, about a woman caught up in romance to her mother's dismay, and Take Home Pay, which sees two Samoans on the trail of stolen money. In 2020 he set out to complete a film in just 30 days: Mama's Music Box.