Marton Csokas
Actor Marton Csokas came to fame in the early 90s, playing the bumbling Dr Dodds in Shortland Street. Since then he has appeared in interracial romance Broken English and coming of age story Rain, before starting a run of international roles — often as the villain — in everything from xXx to The Bourne Supremacy.
John Banas
Beginning as an actor, writer and director in local theatre during the 70s, John Banas increasingly focused on dramatic writing for television from the 80s on. After relocating to Australia, he established himself as a prolific TV screenwriter with a string of iconic shows, including Blue Heelers and City Homicide. His New Zealand scripts include award-winning telemovies Siege and How to Murder Your Wife.
Donna Malane
Donna Malane, who runs company Lippy Pictures with writer Paula Boock, is an award-winning producer and screenwriter. She has written a wide variety of television including drama, fantasy, children’s drama, sketch comedy and documentary. Malane is also the author of a number of books, including acclaimed crime novel Surrender.
Geraldine Brophy
Geraldine Brophy is one of our most loved and recognisable actors. She has a swag of awards for her work, which — she half-jokes — come in handy as doorstops. After beginning her screen career with walk-on parts in McPhail and Gadsby, she went on to iconic titles like Shortland Street and Second-Hand Wedding. Brophy has gone on to a second act in her career, writing for the theatre.
Rose McIver
After appearing briefly in The Piano at age three, Rose McIver went on to star in big budget fantasy series Maddigan’s Quest while still a teen. Since then she has played one of the passengers in true life train disaster tale Tangiwai - A Love Story, and completed a five season run in American series iZombie, starring as a crime-solving zombie. She is set to co-star in Kiwi movie musical Daffodils.
Paula Boock
Paula Boock — who runs production company Lippy Pictures with Donna Malane — has won awards both for her scripts and her novels for young adults. Boock’s screenwriting resume includes The Strip, innovative drama The Insiders Guide to Happiness, plus award-winning tele-movies Jean, Bloodlines and Until Proven Innocent.
Greg McGee
Greg McGee's first play Foreskin's Lament (1980) is seen as a watershed moment in the maturing of a distinctly Kiwi theatre. Since then McGee has demonstrated (with tele-movie Old Scores) that rugby can be the stuff of comedy as well as critique. He has also created or co-created a run of television dramas - including long-running law show Street Legal - many of them awardwinners.
David McPhail
David McPhail's television resume is that of a genuine stayer. Working with Jon Gadsby, his longtime comic partner in crime, McPhail co-starred — and famously impersonated Sir Rob Muldoon — in landmark sketch shows A Week of It and McPhail and Gadsby. Later he helped create the Barry Crump-style yarns of Letter to Blanchy, and played the no-nonsense teacher in Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby.
Pip Hall
Pip Hall has written for television and theatre, and won awards in both mediums. She started her screen career writing for sketch shows like Skitz and Telly Laughs, and enjoyed a long working relationship with soap Shortland Street. She went on to work on the scripts for Kiwi TV movies Why Does Love? and Runaway Millionaires, miniseries Jonah (about Jonah Lomu) and crime show One Lane Bridge.
Paul Sutorius
Paul Sutorius is an editor who is as comfortable cutting together scenes for drama, children's adventure, a horror movie or a documentary. Sutorius has worked extensively with director Gaylene Preston, and won awards for his editing on Preston's second feature Ruby and Rata and her Te Papa making-of-museum doco, Getting to Our Place.