Richard Turner
Richard Turner’s work as a director began with poetry-based works, pioneering Māori works for television, and Squeeze (1980), New Zealand’s first gay-themed feature. Since then he has made films largely in Australia.
Ross Chambers
Sydney-born Ross Chambers spent much of his career in New Zealand, honing sound and pictures for a variety of movies, plus the occasional television show. Along the way he edited Geoff Murphy's first feature Wild Man and worked as a sound editor on Kiwi classics Utu and Vigil.
Des Monaghan
Des Monaghan has worked as a producer and network executive in both New Zealand and Australia. A pioneering force in local current affairs, he went on to beome TVNZ's Controller of Programming, and sue Prime Minister Robert Muldoon for defamation. In 1996 Monaghan joined Bob Campbell to found Australasian production company Screentime, producers of the globally successful Underbelly drama franchise.
Roger Simpson
With Hunter's Gold, Gather Your Dreams and Children of Fire Mountain, Roger Simpson blazed a successful trail for Kiwi drama shows aimed at a younger audience. Though he has written further New Zealand projects, Simpson relocated to Australia in the early 70s. Since then he has written and produced on a long run of television dramas, most often alongside producing partner Roger Le Mesurier.
Geoffrey Cawthorn
Geoffrey Cawthorn has directed drama and documentary on both sides of the Tasman, including crime (Lawless - Beyond Justice), soap (Shortland Street), fantasy (Maddigan’s Quest) and award-winning shorts (Philosophy). His documentary work often reflects Cawthorn’s musical leanings, including pieces on everything from classical and jazz to Kiwi love songs.
Rachel Antony
After training in journalism Rachel Antony worked in publicity, and researched shows for company Greenstone TV. She has since accrued producer credits across a run of documentaries and mainstays of Kiwi reality television. In a four year Australian stint from 2007, she set up Greenstone’s Sydney office and produced for primetime Australian TV shows. In 2017 Antony became Chief Executive of Greenstone.
Jane Campion
Jane Campion is one of the most dynamic — and applauded — filmmakers to emerge from Australasia. Campion's CV includes Cannes-winning road trip Peel, An Angel at My Table, based on the life of writer Janet Frame, and award-winning mini-series Top of the Lake. With her twisted settler romance The Piano (1993), she became the first woman to take the top award at the Cannes Film Festival.
Gavin Strawhan
Award-winning scribe Gavin Strawhan is one of the most experienced screenwriters working in New Zealand television. His extended resume includes writing for, and helping create TV shows Nothing Trivial, Filthy Rich, Jackson's Wharf, Mercy Peak, Burying Brian, kidult hit Being Eve, Kaitangata Twitch and futuristic thriller This is Not My Life. He also co-wrote 2010 feature film Matariki.
Roger Mirams
Roger Mirams helped launch legendary independent company Pacific Films in 1948, and went on to co-direct Broken Barrier in 1952 with John O'Shea — the only Kiwi feature made that decade. In 1957, Mirams set up a Pacific Films branch in Melbourne. Over the next five decades he won a reputation in Australia for his children's TV shows. Mirams was still working in his 80s; he passed away in February 2004.
Rena Owen
Rena Owen made her name playing the courageous battered wife in Kiwi blockbuster Once Were Warriors. The film won her a run of awards, and international acclaim from Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, The Sydney Morning Herald, Vogue, and Entertainment Weekly. Since then Owen has worked on films in New Zealand, Fiji, Hungary and the United States.