David Harry Baldock
After almost two decades of directing and producing documentaries, David Harry Baldock left TVNZ in 1988 to launch Ninox Television. The company’s roster of reality-based programming included export hit Sensing Murder, local award-winner Our People Our Century and nine seasons of Location Location Location. These days Baldock is busy making arts programmes from Shanghai.
Charlotte Purdy
Charlotte Purdy’s CV ranges from reality TV to Antarctic disaster. After a UK television OE, she helmed docos and factual TV in New Zealand. Under her Rogue Productions banner she created reality format The Big Experiment, and made Reel Late with Kate and The 200kg Kid. A decade producing current affairs (60 Minutes, 20/20) was followed by conceiving and co-directing the lauded docudrama Erebus: Operation Overdue.
Bruno Barrett-Garnier
Bruno Barrett-Garnier calls his company soundnut for good reason. Barrett-Garnier began playing around with audio equipment as a child, and has gone on to work on sound for movies, TV shows, shorts and commercials. The sometime screen composer was one of the key soundies over four seasons of Spartacus; his CV also includes Fish Skin Suit, Giselle and Edmund Hillary movie Beyond the Edge.
Laurie Clarke
Laurie Clarke began his career in 1983, as an editor for Australia’s ABC. Back home for the birth of TV3, he later spent nine years directing and producing for news show 20/20. Clarke is currently a company director at Top Shelf Productions; his list of credits includes Target, What's Really in Our Food, Making New Zealand, Heritage Rescue, and long-running media commentary show Media Take.
Sam Pillsbury
Sam Pillsbury's The Scarecrow was the first Kiwi movie to win invitation to the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Starting at government filmmaking body the Natonal Film Unit, the part-Kiwi, part-American dlrector worked in documentary — including helming the controversial Birth with Dr. R.D. Laing — before making a run of feature films and TV movies, both in New Zealand and North America.
John Barnett
Since the 1970s John Barnett has brought a host of uniquely Kiwi stories to local and international screens, from Fred Dagg and Footrot Flats, to Whale Rider, Sione's Wedding and Outrageous Fortune. As boss of production company South Pacific Pictures for 24 years, he was a driving force behind some of our landmark television dramas and feature films.
Bettina Hollings
Pioneering TV programmer Bettina Hollings can list the launch of Shortland Street and being the first female to head a major local television network among her credits. In 2000, she ‘jumped fence’ and formed Imagination Television. The company is responsible for making some of NZ’s most popular shows, including MasterChef New Zealand, New Zealand’s Got Talent and Grand Designs New Zealand.
Philip Smith
Television producer Philip Smith made his name with a stable of internationally-successful sports programmes. These days, as head of production company Great Southern Film and Television, he has been expanding from comic shows like Eating Media Lunch into other fields — including reality shows (Rescue 1), Moa-nominated telemovie The Kick and 2008 movie Apron Strings.
Julie Christie
Julie Christie, DNZM, is one of New Zealand's most successful television producers. She built her company, Touchdown Productions, into the country's leading producer of entertainment television and exporter of programme formats. In 2006 she sold Touchdown to global company Eyeworks in a multi-million dollar deal; she stayed on as managing director until 2012.
Lisa Manning
London-born Lisa Manning moved to New Zealand with her family, at the age of 10. After working as a regional reporter for the BBC in the early 90s, she returned downunder to file reports for One News, Holmes, Fair Go and Good Morning, winning multiple Qantas Film and TV Awards. From 2000, Manning fronted popular home renovation show Mitre 10 DIY Rescue, before shifting back to morning TV in 2004 to host Good Morning. She made international headlines when a relationship sprang from a 2004 Good Morning interview with Welsh Lord of the Rings actor John Rhys-Davies.