Gavin Strawhan
Award-winning scribe Gavin Strawhan is one of the most experienced screenwriters working in New Zealand television. His extended resume includes writing for, and helping create TV shows Nothing Trivial, Filthy Rich, Jackson's Wharf, Mercy Peak, Burying Brian, kidult hit Being Eve, Kaitangata Twitch and futuristic thriller This is Not My Life. He also co-wrote 2010 feature film Matariki.
Robert Steele
A pioneer of the commercial use of 16mm film in post-war New Zealand, Robert Steele is arguably a lost name in the local screen industry. A portrait photographer who was making amateur films in 1930, he spent several years in his native Australia before returning to NZ for good in 1937. Steele screened his films at workplaces and trade fairs, and was a major producer of commercials in the first decade of Kiwi television.
Bridget Ikin
Producer Bridget Ikin has made a habit of championing Antipodean women filmmakers with original visions, from Alison Maclean (Kitchen Sink) to Jane Campion (An Angel at My Table) and Australian Sarah Watt (Look Both Ways). Since leaving New Zealand in the early 1990s, Ikin has been influential in Australian television and film, including programming public broadcasting network SBS.
Cameron Rhodes
Hutt Valley-raised actor Cameron Rhodes has had an award-winning stage career, including starring as Cyrano de Bergerac in Adelaide and touring NZ in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Aside from theatre and coaching work he has also done his share of screen roles, including an award-nominated turn in I’m Not Harry Jenson, the evil Prince John in NZ-shot adventure series Dark Knight, and the counsellor in 2014 hit Housebound.
Paul Horan
Paul Horan co-founded the NZ Comedy Festival and The Classic Comedy Bar, kickstarting a vital Auckland comedy scene — and his own successful trans-Tasman TV career. His credits include The Topp Twins, Super City, and Australia's Rove Live. After helping develop prime time formats like The Project, his company Slightly Uncomfortable Productions has specialised in hybrid news comedy shows.
Nic Nolan
Born in London and long based in Australia, Nic Nolan is probably best known in New Zealand for a silver space suit — the one he wore while co-presenting an ill-fated GOFTA awards show in 1987. Nolan began in UK radio and spent seven years in NZ, both in radio and as a TVNZ continuity announcer. Later he was a TV newsreader in Perth, and did four years as programme director of top-rating Adelaide radio station 5AA.
Tim Sanders
Tim Sanders has worked on a number of New Zealand's most ambitious movie productions, including Whale Rider, The Lord of the Rings, and Perfect Creature. Originally based in Australia, Sanders is now better known as a New Zealand producer. He is noted for his pragmatic attitude and bent for commercial genre subjects.
Bruce Phillips
Bruce Phillips’ long stage career encompasses six acting awards, directing, and a “brilliantly funny” starring role as Uncle Vanya. On-screen, his CV runs to more than 30 roles, including playing fighter pilot Richard Dalgleish on TV series Country GP, a womanising dentist on Roger Hall comedy Neighbourhood Watch, and Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer in 1994 miniseries Fallout.
Athina Tsoulis
Born in Greece and raised in Adelaide, Athina Tsoulis began making films after she moved to Auckland in the 1980s. Black comedy The Invisible Hand was invited to multiple festivals, including Clermont-Ferrand. Long keen to tell women's stories, Tsoulis made her feature film debut in 1998 with edgy comedy I'll Make You Happy. Her follow-up, small town drama Jinx Sister, starring Sara Wiseman, was Qantas-nominated for the Best Low-Budget Feature of 2008. Third feature Stars in Her Eyes (2016) involved both screen industry veterans, and students from Unitec — where Tsoulis has for a number of years taught directing.