Caroline Girdlestone
Fed up with seeing animals unintentionally mishandled on set, former farm girl Caroline Girdlestone decided to do something about it. Now one of the most respected animal trainers in Australasia, she’s worked with almost any animal imaginable across more than 500 projects – ranging from the cute barnyard animals of Racing Stripes to the horrifying ovine creatures in Black Sheep.
Roger Donaldson
Roger Donaldson is notable for spearheading the New Zealand film renaissance with Sleeping Dogs (1977). He has been busy directing in Hollywood for much of the period since. Donaldson's first Kiwi story since acclaimed drama Smash Palace (1981) was Burt Munro biopic The World’s Fastest Indian (2005) — the most successful New Zealand film on home soil until the arrival of Taika Waititi's Boy in 2010.
Andrew Hagen
Andrew Hagen began composing for film while in band Schtung. Hagen and fellow bandmember Morton Wilson provided music for a quartet of Kiwi movies, including Kingpin and The Scarecrow, then moved to Hong Kong and set up studios in Asia. In 1992 Hagen headed to LA, establishing himself as an award-winning composer, sound designer and sound supervisor. In 2011 he launched a branch of Schtung back in Wellington.
Kathryn Quirk
NZ On Screen Content Director Kathryn Quirk has worked in management roles at TVNZ, NZ On Air and MTV New Zealand. Along the way she has done time in presentation, promotions, programme funding, rights and commercial affairs, and a crowded television studio — and run her own art gallery too.
Clyde Scott
Pop star, actor, artist and advertising creative — Clyde Scott's CV is as diverse as it is long. In the 60s the Lyttelton native was a bow tie and cardigan wearing singer. He presented pop shows In The Groove, Teen '63 and Swingin' Safari, acted on stage, and had a small role in 1964 road movie Runaway. While juggling an extended career in advertising, he went on to act in classic 1977 movie Sleeping Dogs, playing the cop who interrogates Sam Neill. He also co-starred in the 'After the Depression' episode of series Winners & Losers, as a man struggling to stay optimistic in hard times. Scott returned to painting in the early 1990s.
Geoff Dixon
Geoff Dixon began making commercials in the 70s — the decade he launched legendary ad company Silverscreen Productions, whose clients included Cadbury, Toyota, Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines. Ranging across New Zealand and beyond, his work includes iconic images of South Island back roads, Barry Crump crashing utes through the bush, and Michael Hurst singing a war cry for the Kiwi bloke.
Ted (Edwin) Coubray
Ted Coubray was one of Aotearoa's earliest filmmakers to sustain a full-time career. In the 1920s he began filming local events for screenings in town halls around the Manawatū. He went on to shoot a number of feature films, including his own hit Carbine's Heritage. When sound hit the film industry in the late 20s, the inventive Coubray pioneered his own sound on film system, Coubray-Tone. He died on 10 December 1997. Image credit: taken from Geoff Steven documentary Adventures in Māoriland
Tony Williams
Tony Williams' contribution to the development of NZ film and television has been huge: his camerawork for John O'Shea's 60s feature-films, the nine ground-breaking documentaries he directed for Pacific Films, and his feature Solo, which helped launch the 70s new wave. After moving to Australia in 1980, Williams continued to wield a lively influence on our culture by directing many legendary commercials.
Gordon Dryden
From a career in print journalism and public relations that began in his teens, Gordon Dryden became a familiar face on New Zealand television in the mid 70s. Earning himself a reputation as a tough interviewer, Dryden hosted coverage of the 1975 election before presenting Friday Conference. A 1991 TV series on education would lead to book The Learning Revolution, which sold in the millions.
John Blick
After starting his filmmaking career at the National Film Unit, cinematographer John Blick has shot many iconic Kiwi commercials, done extended time in Asia and the United States — and worked alongside everyone from Brian Brake and Peter Jackson (The Frighteners), to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.