News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Antarctica Trip Motivates Lorde on All Levels

Antarctica Trip Motivates Lorde on All Levels

New Zealand-born singer Lorde, 24, has teased fans with more information about a new album while announcing her book, Going South, inspired by her 2019 trip to Antarctica. The Independent’s Isobel Lewis reports. The “Green Light” singer has…

Rebecca Thomas’ Polish Portraits Stand Out

Rebecca Thomas’ Polish Portraits Stand Out

“More Radical Empathy, a project by New Zealand-born photographer Rebecca Thomas, is a poignant and inspiring series of portraits of activists from the global queer community in London, bearing heartfelt slogans of resistance against…

Journalist’s Flock to Hamish McKenzie’s Substack

Journalist’s Flock to Hamish McKenzie’s Substack

“Between the collapse of newspapers, the misfortunes of digital media, and the economic wreckage of the coronavirus pandemic, writing for a living can feel like a cold, dreary, morale-sucking march to the unemployment office….

JK Rowling Picks Sophie Mills’ Ickabog Illustration

JK Rowling Picks Sophie Mills’ Ickabog Illustration

Southland Girls’ High School student Sophie Mills, 12, was one of four New Zealanders amongst 32 submissions worldwide to have an illustration included in JK Rowling’s latest book, The Ickabog. About 18,000 entries were…

Benee’s Debut Out Featuring UK Pop Royalty

Benee’s Debut Out Featuring UK Pop Royalty

Grimes and Lily Allen feature on Auckland pop sensation Benee’s debut album, Hey u x, and she’s just played one of the post-Covid era’s first arena shows. The twenty-year-old tells NME’s Caitlin O’Reilly about…

Oamaru Rock Capital of the Universe

Oamaru Rock Capital of the Universe

“It’s the kind of town where the public toilets remain open after dusk without being vandalised, and where the grand width of the rather beautiful main street is a reminder of busier days. And…

Rocky Horror Creator Richard O’Brien Interviewed

Rocky Horror Creator Richard O’Brien Interviewed

New Zealand-raised Richard O’Brien, the creator of the cult Rocky Horror Picture Show is not going quietly into his 70s. O’Brien, who lives with his third wife, Sabrina, just outside of Katikati, talks with…

Braindead Reflects Mindset of Early 1990s Youth

Braindead Reflects Mindset of Early 1990s Youth

“The rebellious nature of the mid-to-late 20th-century teenager sought to expose , deviating from the social norms to embrace the very depths of ‘bad taste’. Simultaneously, whilst yet unknown, New-Zealand…

Whangarei’s Hundertwasser Art Centre Due to Open

Whangarei’s Hundertwasser Art Centre Due to Open

The last gift of Austrian-born artist, painter and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser to his adopted homeland, New Zealand, is being built in Whangarei, three decades after its inception, Malaysia’s The Star Online reports. The Covid-19 pandemic…

Comedian Rose Matafeo Shines Bright in Baby Done

Comedian Rose Matafeo Shines Bright in Baby Done

Directed by Curtis Vowell and produced by Taika Waititi, award-winning comic Rose Matafeo “is wonderful in irresistible film about parenthood”, Guardian Australia critic Luke Buckmaster writes in a review of New Zealand comedy/drama, Baby…

Blackpink Light up the Sky on Netflix

Blackpink Light up the Sky on Netflix

Whether you’re just a casual fan or a full time “blink”, everyone can take delight in the fact that South Korean pop sensation Blackpink – an all-girl group, including New Zealand-born Rosé (pictured back,…

Academics Affirm Influence of Katherine Mansfield

Academics Affirm Influence of Katherine Mansfield

Two UK academics from Edge Hill University in Lancashire have taken over editorship of the respected Tinakori: Katherine Mansfield Society Critical Journal, and are hoping to draw further attention to Mansfield’s often overlooked importance…

Steve Martin Awards Catherine Browness Banjo Prize

Steve Martin Awards Catherine Browness Banjo Prize

Marton-born banjo player Catherine “BB” Browness is one of five recipients of the 2020 Steve Martin Banjo Prize. Browness, who plays with the bluegrass band Mile Twelve, shared in the US$50,000 prize, which…

At Home With Teen Producer Jawsh 685

At Home With Teen Producer Jawsh 685

Created by American Jason Derulo using Aucklander Joshua Stylah’s instrumental “Laxed (Siren Beat)”, the track “Savage Love” has topped the charts in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, surpassed 1.1 billion streams and was…

“Indigenous knowledge central to Aotearoa”: artist Shannon Te Ao discusses new video work in Canada

“Indigenous knowledge central to Aotearoa”: artist Shannon Te Ao discusses new video work in Canada

Despite experiencing setbacks caused by COVID-19, Wellington-based artist Shannon Te Ao is having a busy year, presenting new video work in two Canadian locations during 2020, and marking his first solo museum exhibitions in…

Parris Goebel Dials in on Inclusion With Rihanna

Parris Goebel Dials in on Inclusion With Rihanna

Lockdown has been stultifying and depressing in its sludgy predictability for many of us – but for others, it has proved uniquely creatively fulfilling, according to British Vogue’s digital director Ellie Pithers. Take New…

Roseanne Liang’s Shadow in the Cloud a Blast

Roseanne Liang’s Shadow in the Cloud a Blast

“Imagine how Ripley of Alien would handle a Nightmare at 20,000 Feet-style gremlin attack. Sound wild? Roseanne Liang’s female empowerment thriller delivers on that premise.” Variety’s Peter Debruge reviews the New Zealand director’s film…

Underplayed Doco Stacey’s Lee’s Homage to Women

Underplayed Doco Stacey’s Lee’s Homage to Women

Electronic music documentary Underplayed is the feature debut of New Zealand-born director Stacey Lee, who has been shortlisted for the Cannes Young Directors Award. “Filmed through a deeply intersectional feminist lens, Underplayed highlights not…

TikTok Opens up a New Music World for Jawsh 685

TikTok Opens up a New Music World for Jawsh 685

TikTok has only been part of our lives for two years, but it’s already had a massive impact on the music business, the BBC reports. South Auckland producer Joshua Nanai, 17, better known as…

Savage is a Moving Street-Gang Saga

Savage is a Moving Street-Gang Saga

“A pulse of vulnerability beats at the heart of Sam Kelly’s outwardly imposing but unexpectedly touching debut feature, Savage,” Phil Hoad writes in a review of the film for The Guardian. The film has…

Inside Anna Paquin’s LA Driftwood Home

Inside Anna Paquin’s LA Driftwood Home

The story of New Zealander Anna Paquin and husband American Stephen Moyer’s Venice Beach home is one of ultimate artistic license. With their selections of architect, interior designer, and landscape designer over the course…

How the Iraq Uprising Inspired Singer Yasamin

How the Iraq Uprising Inspired Singer Yasamin

Three months before the start of Iraq’s October protests last year, almost 10,000 miles away in Auckland, “artivist” Yasamin began binge-watching an Iraqi YouTube political satire show. It would open her eyes to a country…

Max Gimblett Shows Juggernaut in San Francisco

Max Gimblett Shows Juggernaut in San Francisco

San Francisco’s prestigious Hosfelt Gallery presents a solo exhibition of work by the esteemed 84 year-old painter, calligrapher, and Rinzai Zen monk Max Gimblett. The exhibition, entitled juggernaut, opens September 8, 2020 and…

Wheel Of Time Star Zöe Robins Profiled

Wheel Of Time Star Zöe Robins Profiled

Amazon Prime’s epic adaptation of The Wheel Of Time is based in an alternate world where magic exists, but only certain women are permitted to use it. One of those women, Nynaeve, is played…

Eco Challenge Racer Nathan Fa’avae Wins For NZ

Eco Challenge Racer Nathan Fa’avae Wins For NZ

Nelson-based adventure racer Nathan Fa’avae, 48, who led the New Zealand team on to win the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, is profiled by entertainment news site, Screen Rant. For the World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji…

Niki Caro’s Mulan “a dazzling, moving, hair-prickling spectacle”

Niki Caro’s Mulan “a dazzling, moving, hair-prickling spectacle”

An Empire reviewer bemoans this month’s “bittersweet” release of New Zealander Niki Caro’s live-action adaptation Mulan through online streamer Disney Plus. “Not only the best live-action Disney adaptation to date, but also a dazzling,…

Story of WWII Spy Nancy Wake To Hit TV Screens

Story of WWII Spy Nancy Wake To Hit TV Screens

Anonymous Content, the company behind True Detective and The Revenant, has acquired the TV rights to the New York Times bestselling novel Code Name Hélène written by Ariel Lawhon about Wellington-born World War II heroine…

Director Jessica Hobbs Charged with Crown’s Finale

Director Jessica Hobbs Charged with Crown’s Finale

For New Zealand-born Jessica Hobbs, being asked to direct episodes of feted Netflix period drama The Crown was one thing but being tasked with helming the season finale was quite another, Nikki Baughan reports…

Kendo Expert Alexander Bennett Has Hand in WWII Kamikaze Pilot’s Memoir

Kendo Expert Alexander Bennett Has Hand in WWII Kamikaze Pilot’s Memoir

New Zealand-born scholar of Japanese history and martial arts Alexander Bennett has joined forces with fellow kendo practitioner, Shigeru Ohta, to write the English version of World War II kamikaze pilot Kazuo Odachi’s memoir,…

US Vogue Promotes the Soulful Teeks

US Vogue Promotes the Soulful Teeks

You’re about to hear a lot more from Te Karehana Gardiner-Toi, who goes by Teeks. The Māori soul singer is well known in New Zealand but is about to step onto a global stage…

Taking Māori Narratives to Hollywood a Good Thing

Taking Māori Narratives to Hollywood a Good Thing

In a story published by Cambridge University student newspaper, Varsity, Emily Moss argues that we have “nothing to fear” from New Zealander Taika Waititi’s move into the mainstream, “as he seems intent on taking…

The Phoenix Foundation Returns With Hounds of Hell

The Phoenix Foundation Returns With Hounds of Hell

The Phoenix Foundation’s latest single, ‘Hounds of Hell’ features fellow New Zealand artist Nadia Reid, and it’s a momentous occasion, Tina Benitez-Eves reports for American Songwriter magazine. It’s the sextet’s first single in five…

Te Puna O Waiwhetū Reorients With Te Wheke

Te Puna O Waiwhetū Reorients With Te Wheke

“That Aotearoa New Zealand offers a rich vantage point from which to consider the tensions and affordances of displacement is the central claim of the generous, sprawling exhibition ‘Te Wheke: Pathways Across Oceania’,” Matthew…

Artist John Ward Knox Paints a Prime Minister

Artist John Ward Knox Paints a Prime Minister

Fortune has favoured John Ward Knox. The Auckland-born artist’s dual-layer portrait of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been recently released from Australian customs just in time to be entered into the Archibald Prize, Chloe…

Media Mogul Sinead Boucher Challenges Online Giants

Media Mogul Sinead Boucher Challenges Online Giants

Tucked away in Sinead Boucher’s sock drawer is the one-dollar coin that transformed the former journalist into New Zealand’s biggest media mogul, giving her a platform to challenge Facebook and other social media giants,…

Prodigious Singer Aleisha Malcolm in the Limelight

Prodigious Singer Aleisha Malcolm in the Limelight

Christchurch teenager Aleisha Malcolm is far from your average eighteen-year-old. The bright and accomplished singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and activist has impressed global audiences as her seemingly unstoppable career trajectory continues to reach new heights,…

Persian Influences Define CHAII’s Unique New EP

Persian Influences Define CHAII’s Unique New EP

CHAII is of New Zealand’s “most formidable new artists”, according to Happy’s Dan Shaw. On top of a string of singles, she provided the soundtrack to a Fendi campaign and is the first New…

Director Sam Stuchbury Wins Cannes Prize

Director Sam Stuchbury Wins Cannes Prize

Aucklander Sam Stuchbury has won a Silver Screen Young Director Award at Cannes for his work in raising awareness about the effects pornography has on children, directing the government-funded viral porn commercial “Keep It…

Robin Hammond’s Zimbabwe Images Show in France

Robin Hammond’s Zimbabwe Images Show in France

New Zealand-born Robin Hammond is one of ten photojournalists whose work is currently on show at Fondation Carmignac’s newly opened private museum on Porquerolles island, France. Fondation Carmignac is exhibiting each photographer’s work in…

Gillian Lynne and Peter Land Foundation Encourages Students in Performing Arts

Gillian Lynne and Peter Land Foundation Encourages Students in Performing Arts

Launched last year, the Gillian Lynne and Peter Land Foundation continues the work of choreographer Gillian Lynne, whose widower, Taihape-born actor Peter Land tells Nick Smurthwaite, a journalist for The Stage, how the fund…

Oscar Hetherington Wins Photo Award for Backwash

Oscar Hetherington Wins Photo Award for Backwash

Otago-based Oscar Hetherington has won the Grand Prize at the Sony Alpha Awards 2020, Kiro Evans reports for The Scottish Sun. Hetherington was awarded the accolade for his submission ‘Backwash’, which was hailed as…

New Zealanders Pen Music for Dalai Lama’s Album

New Zealanders Pen Music for Dalai Lama’s Album

New Zealand couple, musicians and producers Junelle and Abraham Kunin, have recorded the music of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s debut album, Inner World, an album with 42 minutes of mantras and chants set…

Actor Michael Dorman Star of Creepy New Thriller

Actor Michael Dorman Star of Creepy New Thriller

Veteran actor Auckland-born Michael Dorman, 39, stars as Jack Shaughnessy, an ambitious TV sports reporter in the new six-episode Australian thriller The Secrets She Keeps screening on US channel, Sundance Now. The New York Post…

The Beths Brand With Self-Doubt

The Beths Brand With Self-Doubt

When The Guardian’s Brodie Lancaster’s video call connects with Auckland songwriter Elizabeth Stokes, he writes that he realises she’s opted for an audio-only chat and switches his camera off too. It’s the kind of…

Emma G Battling Bigotry With Music in D.C.

Emma G Battling Bigotry With Music in D.C.

Few could have foreseen the landmark events that would embroil the US in upheaval but for former Hamiltonian Emma Ghaemmaghamy, better known as Emma G, the situation has proved surprisingly fertile territory for her…

Supalonely Singer Benee Speaks with Teen Vogue

Supalonely Singer Benee Speaks with Teen Vogue

Twenty-year-old Aucklander Benee recently performed her TikTok mega hit “Supalonely” on two popular US television programmes, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and the Ellen Show. In June, she spoke to Teen Vogue about…

Amazing Race Host Phil Keoghan on Future of Travel

Amazing Race Host Phil Keoghan on Future of Travel

Los Angeles-based Phil Keoghan, host of The Amazing Race, has been working on a new competition show for CBS called Tough As Nails featuring essential workers, which finished filming before the coronavirus outbreak and premieres…

Hamish Bennett’s Bellbird Antidote to Winter Gloom

Hamish Bennett’s Bellbird Antidote to Winter Gloom

“Warming the cockles of audience hearts at last year’s Sydney Film Festival, New Zealander Hamish Bennett’s comedy Bellbird is a defiantly optimistic tribute to the Northland region where the primary school teacher-cum-filmmaker grew up,”…

Everything You Need to Know about The Luminaries

Everything You Need to Know about The Luminaries

“Set during the New Zealand gold rush in the 1860s, is a heady concoction of love, murder and revenge. It follows the story of Anna Weatherell (played by…

Karekare Bach Unites Architecture and Nature

Karekare Bach Unites Architecture and Nature

“A bach is New Zealand’s answer to the humble beach cabin, and the Karekare Bach represents the epitome of its building genre,” Ellie Stathaki writes for influential British design magazine, Wallpaper. “The simple wooden…

Sam Neill Back on Set with Anna Paquin

Sam Neill Back on Set with Anna Paquin

The Jurassic Park star Sam Neill has been entertaining the masses during lockdown with his ukulele playing and ‘Cinema Quarantino Productions’. He talks to The Independent’s Alexandra Pollard about his new role on season…

Artist Peter Boggs Explores the Ins and Outs

Artist Peter Boggs Explores the Ins and Outs

“Peter Boggs, the New Zealand-born, Blue Mountains-based artist, has been a regular exhibitor in Canberra for the past 22 years. Boggs champions a form of ‘slow art’, where he relies on the viewer to…

How Zane Lowe Became Pop’s Unofficial Therapist

How Zane Lowe Became Pop’s Unofficial Therapist

Sitting in a studio in Culver City, California opposite New Zealand-born Zane Lowe, the grey-stubbled Beats 1 host and Apple Music honcho, musicians tend to unspool, even shed a tear, Melena Ryzik writes in…

Artist Zac Langdon-Pole Looks to the Stars

Artist Zac Langdon-Pole Looks to the Stars

Gazing at the stars is something that Berlin-based, Auckland-born artist Zac Landon-Pole has been doing for some time now. He had contemplated celestial mapping through his Passport (Argonauta) creations where meteorites were hand-carved to…

Lighting Up the TV Screen With a Wild Rush

Lighting Up the TV Screen With a Wild Rush

The six-part television adaptation of New Zealand author Eleanor Catton’s award-winning 2013 novel, The Luminaries is “a romantic introduction to the Southern Hemisphere country’s 19th century gold rush”, according to The National’s correspondent, Farah…

Hugh Stewart’s FaceTime Portraits Shots of Lockdown

Hugh Stewart’s FaceTime Portraits Shots of Lockdown

Working from a pop-up studio in the garage of his Sydney home, New Zealand-born photographer Hugh Stewart has captured the experience and emotion of life in lockdown using just FaceTime and a strategically placed…