Judith Fyfe
Judith Fyfe’s career in broadcasting has placed her before and behind the cameras. A celebrated oral historian, she began her TV career as a reporter, and went on to work on consumer rights show Fair Go and pioneering drama Marching Girls. She was a core element in Gaylene Preston’s respected documentary War Stories, and co-founder of the Oral History Archive at the Alexander Turnbull Library.
Belinda Todd
Radio writer turned TV3 weather presenter Belinda Todd went on to win infamy and a cult following, as the boundary pushing co-host of late night show Nightline. Todd has also written and produced documentaries, and starred as a caring career woman in Melody Rules, a comedy series which has its share of detractors.
Hilary Barry
Hilary Barry has long experience of reporting and reading the news. In 1993 she began a two decade stint at TV3. In 2005 she became anchor of the channel's primetime news, alongside Mike McRobert. Barry went on to report from the Canterbury quakes, the 2011 royal wedding and the famine in Africa. She left TV3 in 2016, and began co-hosting TVNZ's Breakfast; in 2018 she moved to primetime show Seven Sharp.
Paul Yates
Writer, producer and actor Paul Yates is a comedic "everyman". His CV includes sketch shows Facelift and Telly Laughs, pre-teen series Freaky and The Killian Curse, and teen sitcom Girl vs Boy. He’s written for popular sitcoms Willy Nilly and Sunny Skies, and is producer and co-writer for Wellington Paranormal, the hit spin-off from 2014 movie What We Do in the Shadows.
Ian Cross
Ian Cross trained as a journalist. His 1957 novel The God Boy has been hailed as a classic (and similar status afforded to the 1976 TV adaptation). As Listener editor he doubled its circulation; as broadcasting chair and chief executive he had a turbulent relationship with the Muldoon government — and failed to stem what he saw as the over-commercialisation of television.
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.
Bill Stalker
One of Bill Stalker's earliest screen roles was played a biker in 1971 TV drama Pukemanu. Masterton-born Stalker spent time touring with multi-media sensation Blerta (he provided the spoken part for Blerta hit ‘Dance Around the World’), then began an ongoing role on pioneering Kiwi soap Close to Home. He went on to a successful television career in Australia, playing security man turned detective Peter Fanelli on both Skyways and Cop Shop. Stalker was killed in a motorbike crash in Melbourne on 28 November 1981; he was 33. A dedication featured on his final episode of Cop Shop.
Jemaine Clement
Jemaine Clement is the bespectacled half of folk-comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, who achieved international cult status in their own HBO series. Clement's screen career began after he appeared on 90s sketch shows Telly Laughs and Skitz. Following his big screen debut in Tongan Ninja, he starred in misfit romance Eagle vs Shark. In 2014 he co-directed and acted in hit vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows.
Maggie Barry
A lover of gardens from childhood with a diploma in horticulture, Maggie Barry spent four years on the news frontline as co-host of National Radio’s Morning Report from 1986 to 1989. As presenter of TV hit Maggie’s Garden Show she was the face of NZ gardening for 12 years. After time in freelance journalism and radio she was elected MP for North Shore in 2011, and became a cabinet minister in 2014.
Amanda Billing
After three years as a high school teacher, Masterton-raised Amanda Billing began a decade long run on Shortland Street in 2004. Four years later her character, feisty doctor Sarah Potts, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, in an extended storyline that won praise from many real life MS sufferers. When her character passed away suddenly in mid 2014, a tribute page attracted hundreds of positive comments. Since then Billing has presented Sensing Murder, acted in Find Me a Māori Bride and The Bad Seed, and displayed her musical talents in Cabaret, The Threepenny Opera and Auckland’s Jubilation Choir.