Ron McIntyre
As a war correspondent filming the New Zealand forces in Italy and the Middle East, Ron McIntyre played a key role in supplying the raw material for the early films of the National Film Unit. After nearly four years overseas, he returned home and tried his hand at independent filmmaking. McIntyre spent just over seven years with the NFU as a cameraman and director, and also worked briefly for Pacific Films.
Peter Coates
If director and producer Peter Coates was a superhero, he’d surely be ‘Renaissance Man’. His contribution to championing the arts on television is arguably heroic, and his career multi-faceted. From 1971 to 2004 Coates produced, directed or scripted hundreds of TV productions covering a smorgasbord of topics, from operas to soap operas, and from portraits of New Zealand artists to rugby coaching films.
Reuben Collier
Rūātoki-raised Reuben Collier cut his screen teeth reporting on Waka Huia. In 2001 he founded Maui TV Productions in Rotorua. Collier's producing and directing credits include Marae, Matatini coverage, award-winning documentary Sciascia, and long-running food show Kai Time on the Road. in 2017 Collier was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the television industry and Māori.
Nadia Maxwell
After five years in the UK, Nadia Maxwell returned home to New Zealand in 2003, to work for Film South. Then she began as a production manager at Christchurch-based Raconteur Productions; she worked on documentaries for TVNZ, TV3 and Al Jazeera, and directed Growing Up Muslim and Singing With Conviction, plus episodes of Making Italy Home. In 2012 she produced Nic Gorman and Paul Glubb's zombie film Here Be Monsters, which won Best Short at the NZ Film Awards. The graduate of Amsterdam's prestigious Binger Filmlab also produced Gorman’s first feature, 2017 psychological thriller Human Traces.
Robert Boyd-Bell
Television veteran Robert Boyd-Bell's eclectic screen career includes 14 years in journalism, followed by time in academia, public service TV, and producing. Which is not to forget writing landmark book New Zealand Television – The First 25 Years. Boyd-Bell joined the state broadcaster in 1965, and later headed TV One's northern newsroom. He also has an extensive involvement in delivering programmes online.
Michelanne Forster
Michelanne Forster is a playwright, scriptwriter and author, who moved from her native California to New Zealand in the 1970s. After training as a teacher, she began her career as a writer, producer and director of children’s programmes with TVNZ. She played a large part in making the long-running Play School more relevant to a Kiwi audience, and later worked on children's shows Spot On, What Now and After School.
Mark McNeill
Mark McNeill has been making documentaries for over 20 years. Along the way he has shown a knack for offbeat factual programming, including work with Te Radar and psychologist Nigel Latta. In 1999 McNeill launched company Razor Films. He and Latta went on to reshape The Politically Incorrect Parenting Show for a primetime Australian slot. In 2018 McNeill become the first Kiwi producer to make a series for Netflix.
Roger Mirams
Roger Mirams helped launch legendary independent company Pacific Films in 1948, and went on to co-direct Broken Barrier in 1952 with John O'Shea — the only Kiwi feature made that decade. In 1957, Mirams set up a Pacific Films branch in Melbourne. Over the next five decades he won a reputation in Australia for his children's TV shows. Mirams was still working in his 80s; he passed away in February 2004.
John Bates
John Bates is a documentary director whose low profile and natural modesty belies his talent. His award-winning documentaries range across many iconic New Zealand people and events, including the 1951 waterfront dispute, the 1975 Māori Land March, late photographer Robin Morrison, and the history of television itself.
Les Andrews
Les Andrews, QSM, began singing with the Kiwi Concert Party during World War II. After the war he studied at London’s Royal College of Music, and sang on BBC television. Back home he was one of the first faces on air when local television began transmitting, and later spent four years hosting quiz show Personality Squares. With his wife Sonia, he was a busy patron of the arts. Andrews died on 28 February 2014.