Roz Mason
Director Roz Mason has three decades worth of credits on television documentaries and TV series. She cut her screen teeth on TVNZ staples like Fair Go, Kaleidoscope and Crimewatch, before going freelance in the 90s. Subjects Mason has directed range from poets, drama students and assault survivors, to shipwrecks and sword swallowers — plus orangutans and pandas for company NHNZ.
Gary Scott
Gary Scott began his television career as an assignment editor on TV3's news desk, before joining Ninox Films as a writer and researcher. He directed documentaries then joined Wellington company Gibson Group in 2001, where he has produced or executive produced a slew of factual programmes and series, including Kiwis at War, Here to Stay and NZ Detectives.
Anna Cottrell
Christchurch-raised Anna Cottrell is a prolific documentary maker, with a keen interest in the stories that people tell. Her work ranges widely, from documentaries on immigrants (An Immigrant Nation) and family (Other People's Children), to five seasons of the bite-sized Great War Stories. Cottrell launched her company AC Productions in 2001.
Rob Harley
Journalist, director and producer Rob Harley has won many awards in a career spanning four decades. He was a high profile investigative reporter on TVNZ’s flagship news and current affairs shows Frontline, Assignment and Sunday from 1990 to 2003, before moving into independent programme making.
Mihingarangi Forbes
Award-winning journalist Mihingarangi Forbes has spent 20+ years working in television, reporting in both te reo and English. Feilding-raised Forbes began her career as an intern on Te Karere, before moving to One News, Campbell Live, 20/20 and Native Affairs. She resigned from Māori Television in 2015, claiming she'd lost control over her stories, and began presenting Three's new current affairs show The Hui in 2016.
Hugh Macdonald
Hugh Macdonald began his long, award-studded career at the National Film Unit, where at age 25 he directed ambitious three-screen spectacular This is New Zealand (1970). It was seen by 400,000 New Zealanders. In the 1980s he produced Oscar-nominated short The Frog, the Dog, and the Devil and set up his own company, continuing a busy diet of train documentaries, commercial films and animation.
John Hyde
When John Hyde first sought work in television he was advised to "get into the cutting room". His first job was as an editor at Television New Zealand, but Hyde soon made the jump to directing and producing. Today he reaches huge international audiences, helping command documentaries and reality series that focus on massive architectural structures, and showcase the wonders of the natural world.
Mike Single
Natural history and adventure cameraman Mike Single has worked everywhere from Death Valley to Antarctica, and filmed everything from BASE jumping to the birthplace of kung fu. A long association with company NHNZ has scored him a swag of awards, including an International Emmy for his Antarctic film The Crystal Ocean. Single's work has screened on Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
Rawiri Paratene
Actor, writer and director Rawiri Paratene, ONZM, first sprang into the public eye on the iconic Play School and comedy shows like Joe and Koro. In 1999 he played gangmember Mulla Rota in the sequel to Once Were Warriors, and four years later was seen around the globe as the stubborn grandfather in Whale Rider. In 2010 he won further acclaim after starring in movie The Insatiable Moon.
Jay Ryan
Jay Ryan narrated hit series Go Girls, playing a mechanic desperately trying to understand the minds of his female friends. By then he'd been acting on screen for almost a decade, including time on teen hit Being Eve, and a Logie Award nominated run on Australian soap Neighbours. In 2012 Ryan got a starring role in an American TV update of Beauty and the Beast, as the survivor of a military experiment. The show ran for four seasons. He went on to play a detective in Canadian series Mary Kills People. After another Logie nomination for Aussie military drama Fighting Season, Ryan joined the sequel to Stephen King's It.