Arani Cuthbert
Producer and talent agent Arani Cuthbert has had a long association with legendary performing duo The Topp Twins — including producing their TV show Topp Country, and hit movie documentary The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls.
Richard O'Brien
Richard O’Brien made his mark in the history of musicals — and cult movies — after creating the tale of a sweet transvestite from Transylvania. The Rocky Horror Picture Show has played on cinema screens for decades. The stage show continues to win new fans. O’Brien has gone on to a wide range of projects, including movie Dark City and hosting New Zealand’s DNA Detectives and UK hit The Crystal Maze.
Euan Frizzell
Veteran animator Euan Frizzell brought his artist's hands to almost every form of the genre, from traditional cartoons to stop motion to computer generated animation. Along the way, he animated stories by local legends Margaret Mahy and Lynley Dodd, and directed and animated for Bugs Bunny, Road Runner and Fred Flintstone. Frizzell died on 23 September 2012.
Matt Murphy
Having worked on the sets of Goodbye Pork Pie and Utu as a teen, Matt Murphy’s filmmaking career was surely on the cards. After art directing on features, TV dramas and commercials in his 20s, Murphy began directing commercials himself in 1995. Since then he has won a long line of advertising awards. In 2016 Murphy started on his debut feature, a remake of his father Geoff’s Kiwi classic, Goodbye Pork Pie.
Peter Arnett
The long journalism career of Pulitzer-Prize winner Peter Arnett includes interviews with Fidel Castro, General Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. But he is probably best known for the two month period in 1991 when he reported on the Gulf War for CNN — the only Western journalist then left in Baghdad.
Grant Tilly
Actor Grant Tilly, who died in April 2012, displayed his gifts for understated comedy in movies Middle Age Spread and Carry Me Back. The versatile Tilly had done it all — from acclaimed theatre performances (often in Roger Hall plays) to screen roles that took in everything from adventure movies and landmark historical dramas (The Governor), to children's TV, sitcoms (Gliding On), and many voice-overs.
Paul Swadel
Elam graduate Paul Swadel showed his eye for the artistic and the eyecatching both in his own award-winning work as a director — short films, arts programmes (Colin McCahon: I Am), commercials — and as producer: through collaborations with animator James Cunningham and on digi-feature incubator Headstrong. Swadel died in March 2016.
Paul Campion
English-born Paul Campion first spent time in New Zealand as part of the design and visual effects team on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Since then his effects work has taken him around the world, and he has directed two successful shorts. The Kiwi-made Eel Girl, his second, won awards at a long run of international festivals. In 2011 Campion made his feature debut with Wellington-shot WWII horror movie The Devil’s Rock.
Danny Mulheron
Danny Mulheron has approached comedy from almost every angle: as a writer, director, inside a hippo suit, and as co-creator of the politically-incorrect Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby. But laughter is only half the story. Mulheron has also acted in a run of productions, presented car series AA Torque Show, and directed everything from documentaries (The Third Richard) to several TV dramas about iconic Kiwis.
David Paul
David Paul's work as a cameraman and director of photography covers the gamut, from documentary and dramas to shorts, commercials and feature films. His CV includes award-winning work on telemovies Tangiwai - A Love Story and Until Proven Innocent, plus Edmund Hillary miniseries Hillary.