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TaungaroaEmile

Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Rarotonga
  • Actor
Tangaroa-Emile-Key-Profile.jpg

Hawke's Bay teen Taungaroa Emile had only acted in school plays, before he made an award-winning screen debut in landmark movie Once Were Warriors (1994). Emile played shy but rebellious teenager Boogie Heke once again in the 1999 sequel. In-between, he starred as a teen ex-con in movie romance Flight of the Albatross. Since then Emile has starred in episodes of Taonga and te reo series Aroha, and appeared in Shortland Street, acclaimed feature No 2, and 2011 TV film Tangiwai - A Love Story. In 2004 he played one of the soldiers in Taika Waititi short Tama Tū, which was invited to over 40 film festivals. 

Screenography

Vai
2019 As: Elvisi (Cook Islands/Kuki Airani - protest story) Film
Enemy Within
2019 As: Izzy Kaanaoi Film
Possum (2016 short film)
2016 As: Dad Short film
Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses
2015 As: Shane Television
The Pā Boys
2014 Casting Film

Awards

1994 New Zealand Film and Television Awards
Best Juvenile Performance — Film: for Once Were Warriors

“Taungaroa's got a real ability to work the cameras. He looks wonderful on screen because he's got his own charm and sense of character.”

— Once Were Warriors scriptwriter Riwia Brown in Mana magazine, Winter 1996

More information

Agent's bio

Related images

No-2-gallery-1.jpg
Soul (Taungaroa Emile) and Danish Maria (Tuva Novotny) in a moment of happiness from No. 2.
Photo appears courtesy of the NZ Film Commission
no-2-gallery-3.jpg
Soul (Taungaroa Emile) and Erasmus (Rene Naufahu) in a scene from 2006 movie No. 2.
Photo appears courtesy of the NZ Film Commission