Bret McKenzie
Bret McKenzie is one half of musical-comedy duo Flight of the Conchords. McKenzie and Jemaine Clement found international fame with the cult HBO comedy, which followed the duo's fictional efforts to 'make it' in New York. An Oscar-winner after writing songs for The Muppets (2011), McKenzie's screen career began after a brief role in The Lord of the Rings trilogy helped win him a cult following.
Kōtuku Tibble
Broadcaster, teacher and Māori language advocate Kōtuku Tibble spent his life championing te reo. Tibble boasted a diverse CV — he had a hand in the launch of te reo pop group, Aaria, taught around the North Island for 28 years, and presented shows for television and radio over more than a decade. The father of two passed away on 24 September 2017, at the age of 53.
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.
Nyree Dawn Porter
From humble beginnings as a stage actor in New Zealand in the 1950s, Nyree Dawn Porter achieved international success via British television. As one of the stars of 1967's The Forsyte Saga, she was seen by over 100 million people worldwide. Following the show’s mammoth success, she was awarded an OBE in 1970 for services to television.
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.
Fiona Samuel
Fiona Samuel, MNZM, has worked prolifically across so many fields that she defies labels. Aside from acting on stage and screen, she is a playwright (The Wedding Party), director (TV movies Bliss and Piece of My Heart), scriptwriter (Consent, Outrageous Fortune) and singer (musical revue Babes in the Mood).
Rob Sarkies
Rob Sarkies made his first film at age 10. His feature debut was 1999 hit Scarfies, followed by Out of the Blue, an acclaimed dramatisation of the Aramoana murders. Sarkies followed it with TV's This is Not My Life and black comedy Two Little Boys, based on a novel by his brother Duncan. Since then he has directed Moa-nominated TV movie Consent, and multi award-winning Jean Batten biopic Jean.
Simon Price
Simon Price grew up in Dunedin. Named most innovative graduate at Melbourne's VCA Film School, he worked in Australia for many years as a writer/director, editor and video artist before returning home to help edit King Kong. Price's feature editing credits have since included Blackspot, landmark Samoan drama The Orator, Cambodian-set fable Ruin, Pā Boys, and docos Last Men Standing and Antarctica: A Year On Ice.
Claire Chitham
Claire Chitham’s eight years playing Shortland Street receptionist Waverley Wilson made her one of the show’s longest-serving castmembers to date, as well as one of the most popular. She went on to a memorable role as gang girl Aurora Bay in Outrageous Fortune and won an NZ Screen Award for her work in Interrogation.
Michael Galvin
As Shortland Street's 'Doctor Love' Chris Warner, Michael Galvin has survived four marriages, morphine addiction, an emergency tracheotomy, unexpected triplets, and being strung up by psycho Dominic Thompson. Shortland's longest-serving actor actually left the show for five years in 1996, before returning. Acclaimed for a part-singing role in Everly Brothers play Blue Sky Boys, he has also won awards for his writing, which includes fiction and 2009 play Station to Station — Galvin starred as a rabid evangelist. His screen roles include TV series Cover Story and 1997 telemovie Highwater.