Lindsay Perigo
During the late 80s and early 90s Lindsay Perigo anchored on a run of high profile TVNZ news and current affairs shows, where he gained a reputation as the “doyen of political interviewers” (Metro magazine). The opera-loving broadcaster abandoned television in 1993 — famously calling the medium "braindead" — and reinvented himself as an apostle of libertarian philosophical doctrines (on radio, in print and online).
Witi Ihimaera
With his 1973 book Tangi, Witi Ihimaera became the first Māori to publish both a novel and a book of short stories. Later his book The Whale Rider inspired a feature film which won international acclaim, and became one of the highest grossing 'foreign' titles released internationally in 2003. Ihimaera's work has also seen a number of television adaptations, including landmark big city tale Big Brother, Little Sister.
Barry Barclay
Barry Barclay — director of landmark TV series Tangata Whenua and feature film Ngati — was a longtime campaigner for the right of indigenous people to tell their own stories, to their own people. In 2004 he was made an Arts Foundation Laureate, and in 2007 a Member of the NZ Order of Merit. Barclay passed away on 19 February 2008, after publishing his acclaimed book Mana Tuturu.
Shaun Brown
From trainee reporter to TVNZ’s Head of Television and then on to Managing Director of Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service, Shaun Brown’s career spanned 45 years. And all but four of those years were linked directly to public broadcasting. While the latter half of his career saw him increasingly taking on executive roles, he brought with him the experience of having worked at almost every level of the business.
David Coulson
David Coulson trained to be a director, but instead discovered a passion for editing. He joined TV One and worked on a range of programmes including Mortimer's Patch, before going freelance in the early 80s. Since then he has won awards for his work in feature films and commercials, and established an ongoing working relationship with Niki Caro, editing all her features from Whale Rider onwards.
Greg McGee
Greg McGee's first play Foreskin's Lament (1980) is seen as a watershed moment in the maturing of a distinctly Kiwi theatre. Since then McGee has demonstrated (with tele-movie Old Scores) that rugby can be the stuff of comedy as well as critique. He has also created or co-created a run of television dramas - including long-running law show Street Legal - many of them awardwinners.
Liddy Holloway
Probably best known for playing Alex McKenna (wife to the boss at the Shortland Street clinic), and Hercules' mother, Liddy Holloway also wrote scripts for many of the television shows she appeared in (among them: Shortland, Homeward Bound and Australia’s Prisoner). Holloway passed away in late 2004, after a screen career that spanned three decades.
AK Grant
Lawyer turned satirist AK Grant was writing partner to comedians David McPhail and Jon Gadsby. Together the three created breakthrough comedy hit A Week of It; Grant went on to write for McPhail and Gadsby, Letter to Blanchy and the sitcom version of The Billy T James Show. He passed away on 29 June 2000, at the age of 59.
Jodie Dorday
Jodie Dorday had been doing ballet and jazz dancing for almost two decades when she auditioned for a role on Xena: Warrior Princess in the mid 90s. Two years later she was nominated for her work in TV drama Home Movie, then won for Anthony McCarten film Via Satellite, playing a pregnant hairstylist. She also acted on Roger Hall comedy Market Forces and Jackson's Wharf. In 2008 Dorday scored the starring role in Burying Brian, playing a housewife who accidentally kills her husband after an argument, and fails to tell the authorities. These days based in Bali, she continues to act on stage, and occasionally on screen.
Tony Isaac
Tony Isaac played a major hand in creating some of the key TV dramas of 1970s Kiwi television. He produced New Zealand's first continuing television drama Pukemanu, co-created Close to Home, our first soap, and was one of the main forces behind The Governor, arguably the most ambitious TV drama yet made on New Zealand soil. Isaac passed away in May 1986.