Bernadine Oliver-Kerby
Bernadine Oliver-Kerby’s 25 plus years in broadcasting have ranged from sports reporting (including All Blacks tests and the Olympics) to reading the news — she was a longtime co-presenter on the One News weekend slot. Oliver-Kerby has hosted sports show Skoda Game On, the Halberg sports awards and quiz show New Zealand’s Brainiest Kid; she is also an award-winning radio newsreader.
Jenny-May Clarkson (née Coffin)
Jenny-May Clarkson did her first sports commentary in 2001, the same year she became vice-captain of the Silver Ferns netball team. Clarkson has gone on to work in various roles for TVNZ as a sports commentator, reporter and presenter. She also spent a decade as a presenter on Māori Television sports show Code, and did a stint as a newsreader on news channel TVNZ 7. In 2003 she competed on Celebrity Treasure Island. Clarkson mentors young athletes through organisation High Performance Sport NZ. She has also worked as a police officer and been an assistant coach for netball's Northern Mystics.
Toni Street
Raised on a Taranaki farm, Toni Street has represented Taranaki and Canterbury in netball, and Central Districts in cricket. After commerce studies at Lincoln University and a journalism diploma at Canterbury University, she joined TVNZ as an intern in 2006. During seven years in sport, she commentated at the Beijing Olympics and the World Netball champs. In 2012 Street began co-hosting a Saturday version of Breakfast; she graduated to the weekday show the following year, then joined the Seven Sharp team. Three years later, she was named Television Personality of the Year at the 2017 New Zealand TV Awards.
April Ieremia
Samoan-born but raised in Christchurch, April Ieremia joined netball's Silver Ferns at age 21. Later she captained the Kiwi team against Wales. After co-presenting Moro Sports Extra in 1993, she began hosting the sports section of TVNZ's primetime news. Ieremia helped cover the Olympic Games, and commentated netball and tennis. Her show April’s Angels screened in 1997. Since then Ieremia has presented lifestyle show April in the Afternoon for Sky TV's Living channel, and Choice TV's weekday magazine show Brunch, with Josh Kronfeld. In 2007 she competed on Dancing with the Stars.
John Fellet
Sky Television chief John Fellet began a long tenure in pay television after abandoning hopes of becoming a professional baseballer, and realising accountancy was “a terrible career choice”. Arizona-raised Fellet joined the pay television company as Chief Operating Officer in 1991, and has been Sky’s Chief Executive since 2001. Fellet is set to leave Sky in late 2018.
Shimpal Lelisi
Shimpal Lelisi is an award winning actor, writer and presenter. He is well known for his work with comedy group, The Naked Samoans, appearing in hit movie Sione's Wedding, and writing for animated TV comedy bro’Town where he also voiced the character Valea.
Jane Wrightson
Jane Wrightson is Chief Executive of Crown agency NZ On Air, which funds Kiwi television, digital media, radio and music. Prior to taking on the job in 2007, she spent a decade at Television New Zealand, was New Zealand's first woman Chief Film Censor, and headed both the Broadcasting Standards Authority and screen lobbying group SPADA.
Cathy Campbell
Cathy Campbell became the first woman in New Zealand to anchor a sports programme, after joining TV One’s Sportsnight in 1989. The longtime news and sports reporter moved into newsreading, and later ran PR and events company Cathy Campbell Communications. She died on 23 February 2012, after a two-year battle with a brain tumour.
Brendan Telfer
Aged 25, Brendan Telfer commentated the Kiwi gold medal in hockey at the Montreal Olympics. Over more than two decades in television, he presented sports and commentated rugby, netball, and more. With the 1998 launch of Radio Sport, Telfer concentrated his energies towards radio. He remains a mainstay of the station, hosting a three-hour, five day a week show. 2009 saw the release of his book A Life in Sport.
Bill McCarthy
Bill McCarthy’s wide-ranging television career spans 50 years and counting. McCarthy won a keen following when he anchored coverage of the 1974 Commonwealth Games. After five years presenting Television One’s network news (alternating with Dougal Stevenson), he became a producer and director, and did time as TVNZ’s head of sports. McCarthy set up his own company in 1990, and continues to make shows for cable television.