Rose Matafeo
Rose Matafaeo won attention in 2018 when, at age 26, she won the top comedy award at the Edinburgh Festival. Matafeo has also made a mark on-screen. She was a presenter on TVNZ youth show U Live, before writing and performing for Jono and Ben and Funny Girls, and becoming a regular face on English television. She is set to star in Kiwi movie comedy Baby, Done and British sitcom Starstruck.
Danielle Cormack
Danielle Cormack has showcased her naturalistic, seemingly effortless acting style on both sides of the Tasman. After roles in TV soaps Gloss and Shortland Street, she began a run of big screen starring roles — Topless Women Talk About Their Lives, The Price of Milk and Via Satellite (playing twins). On Australian TV, Cormack has starred as a prisoner (Wentworth), crime lord (Underbelly: Razor) and barrister (Rake).
Kirsty Cameron
Kirsty Cameron started in short film and art installation, before costume designing the first of around 20 feature films — including the acclaimed Whale Rider, Slow West, and No. 2. Her list of awards also includes The Orator and TV movie Jean, about aviator Jean Batten. Cameron's third short as writer/ director, teen fable The Lethal Innocents, was invited to festivals in Sweden, Germany and the USA.
Robyn Scott-Vincent
Robyn Scott-Vincent, MNZOM, is longtime producer of Attitude, the globetrotting series that focuses on people living with a disability. Scott-Vincent has an extensive background as a journalist. Since 1992 she has headed her own production company, Attitude Pictures.
Frank Chilton
Using the power of documentary film Frank Chilton made a difference to the lives of disabled children in New Zealand and around the world. The films he directed for the National Film Unit won many awards and he was honoured by the Queen with an OBE for services to the handicapped.
Chris Plummer
Christopher Plummer went from playing punk music to cutting film, first at TVNZ editing documentaries, and then on a slate of award-winning films. They include the shorts Sure to Rise (Niki Caro), and Possum (Brad McGann); and feature films Channelling Baby, In My Father's Den, Black Sheep, No.2, Vincent Ward doco Rain of the Children, and Taika Waititi's breakout hit Boy.
Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith was the multi-talented actor who appeared in a host of television shows, starting with eighties soap Gloss. He also starred in three tele-movies as maverick private investigator John Lawless. His feature films include period melodrama Desperate Remedies, and offbeat drama Channelling Baby.
Andrea Bosshard
Alongside partner Shane Loader, Andrea Bosshard makes and distributes films through indie filmmaking initiative Torchlight Films. Dominion Post critic Graeme Tuckett called the pair's second feature Hook, Line and Sinker “likeable, admirable and hugely enjoyable”. Third feature The Great Maiden's Blush was released to acclaim — and awards — in 2016.
Jordan Watson
What began as a joke video for a friend about to have a baby ended up transforming Jordan Watson's life. In 2015 Watson filmed his infant daughter Alba in various comical poses for a short video called How To Hold a Baby, and uploaded it to his friend's Facebook page. Overnight the clip went viral. Watson ended up quitting his day job as a director on Jono and Ben to focus on the How To Dad series, becoming a comical parenting guru in the process. The videos have topped 200 million views on YouTube and Facebook. Watson started his television career in 2007, as a runner for Greenstone Pictures.
Kay Ellmers
In a turbulent media landscape, director/producer Kay Ellmers feels that the long-form documentary is still powerful. Her screen CV includes acclaimed doco He Toki Huna: New Zealand in Afghanistan, and popular series like Marae Kai Masters and Mīharo. Ellmers is Managing Director of Tūmanako Productions, and a consultant on documentary and factual programming for Māori Television.