News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Leave No Trace’s Thomasin McKenzie a Breakout Star

Leave No Trace’s Thomasin McKenzie a Breakout Star

Wellington-born teenager Thomasin McKenzie is named one of the year’s “standout stars” by The Atlantic for her role as ‘Tom’ in director Debra Granik’s celebrated 2018 film, Leave No Trace. “Granik has a way of…

Peter Jackson Calls up Protégé Christian Rivers

Peter Jackson Calls up Protégé Christian Rivers

In 2015, Peter Jackson was feeling burned out – and you could hardly blame him. The New Zealand director had just finished work on the Hobbit films, wrapping up production on his supersized fantasy…

Fifteen Minutes With Pop Singer Robinson

Fifteen Minutes With Pop Singer Robinson

Nelson-born artist Robinson, 21, is no stranger to impressing international crowds, having toured Europe earlier this year with Hayley Kiyoko. Now, with singles like the intensely romantic ‘Medicine’ under her belt, the pop singer is…

Rising Star Thomasin McKenzie Wanted to be a Vet

Rising Star Thomasin McKenzie Wanted to be a Vet

When she was a young girl in New Zealand, Thomasin McKenzie wasn’t sure what she wanted to be when she grew up. But she knew what she didn’t want to be. McKenzie sits down…

The Ultimate Beach ‘Shack’

The Ultimate Beach ‘Shack’

“An unassuming ‘shed’ by the water in New Zealand is secretly hiding a modern home with two bedrooms designed for a family-of-five,” writes Billie Schwab Dunn in an article for

Peter Jackson Wants to Restore His Gory Early Films

Peter Jackson Wants to Restore His Gory Early Films

“It’s funny how few of the average theater-goers for Peter Jackson epics, whether it’s The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit or the upcoming Mortal Engines, realize just how debauched the director’s early career…

The Beths & UMO – Must-Hear Indie Albums

The Beths & UMO – Must-Hear Indie Albums

Two albums by New Zealand artists have made UPROXX’ list of must-hear Indie albums of 2018: Future Me Hates Me (The Beths) and Sex & Food (Unknown Mortal Orchestra). “What happens…

Marlon Williams Album One of 2018’s Best

Marlon Williams Album One of 2018’s Best

Marlon Williams album Make Way For Love has been ranked among the 50 best albums (#34) of 2018 in an article by ABC News. “What’s Chasing You drew me into Make…

Rose McIver Inspired by Duchess in Christmas Role

Rose McIver Inspired by Duchess in Christmas Role

When A Christmas Prince, starring New Zealander Rose McIver in the lead role, debuted on Netflix late last year, it became a cultural phenomenon. Sure, A Christmas Prince might have served as emotional catharsis for…

Vocalist & Poet Kimbra “Meant For the Stage”

Vocalist & Poet Kimbra “Meant For the Stage”

“Kimbra is brave. She came clean with her emotions in her Songs from Primal Heart: Reimagined, as reported in an article on WGN Radio’s website, which reviewed the New Zealand…

Hollywood Movies Are Keeping NZ Busier Than Ever

Hollywood Movies Are Keeping NZ Busier Than Ever

“Hollywood films have shot intermittently in New Zealand for decades, taking advantage of the country’s seasoned film workers, world-famous landscapes and opposite seasons. But Kiwi production veterans say they’ve never seen their crews and…

Peter Jackson Earns Rare Blue Peter Gold Badge

Peter Jackson Earns Rare Blue Peter Gold Badge

Sir Peter Jackson has received Blue Peter’s highest accolade – a gold badge. The Oscar-winning director, who is best known for The Lord Of The Rings and The Hobbit films, joins just a select…

Terracotta Warriors Exhibition Launches at Te Papa

Terracotta Warriors Exhibition Launches at Te Papa

Te Papa’s latest landmark exhibition Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality has launched. Xinhua reports. “The exhibition features eight warriors standing 180 cm tall, and two full-size horses from the famous…

Jason Momoa Performs Haka at Aquaman Premiere

Jason Momoa Performs Haka at Aquaman Premiere

Aquaman star Jason Momoa has wowed fans when he led a massive red carpet haka at the film’s premiere on Thursday night. Variety reports. “For the uninitiated,…

Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe in the Interview Hot Seat

Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe in the Interview Hot Seat

Zane Lowe talks like he’s rapping. No, really. The man’s words cascade from his mouth so quickly and smoothly that, at numerous points during our conversation, we expect him to slip into a full-on…

Len Lye Paved the Way for British Animators

Len Lye Paved the Way for British Animators

Animation pioneer New Zealand-born Len Lye features in the television documentary, Secrets of British Animation. Made in conjunction with the British Film Institute, the programme “lifts the lid on an eccentric world where infinite pains…

Predator Cities Fight For Survival in Mortal Engines

Predator Cities Fight For Survival in Mortal Engines

“Oscar winning filmmaker Peter Jackson is returning to the big screen with adventure fantasy “Mortal Engines”, a post-apolcalyptic tale of survival in his first feature film project since his award-winning adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s…

Monk Mackenzie Wins at World Architecture Festival

Monk Mackenzie Wins at World Architecture Festival

“Kiwi architecture firm Monk Mackenzie has taken home a win in the ‘Infrastructure – Future Projects’ category” at this year’s World Architecture Festival, which “kicked off on 28 November in…

Air New Zealand’s New Christmas Video Delights Again

Air New Zealand’s New Christmas Video Delights Again

“Air New Zealand has done it again with a charming – and funny – video which sees the world’s naughtiest children unite in a bid to get back in Santa’s good books after…

Architect Antony Martin Makes Homes in Melbourne

Architect Antony Martin Makes Homes in Melbourne

After working in New York City for a number of years, New Zealand-born Antony Martin decided to move to Australia and set up a firm of his own. Since its founding,

Dudley Benson “One of the Most Distinctive Musical Figures” to Emerge Within NZ

Dudley Benson “One of the Most Distinctive Musical Figures” to Emerge Within NZ

Although he’s relatively unknown outside of New Zealand, Dunedin-based avant-pop artist Dudley Benson, 35, is one of the most distinctive, singular, and divisive musical figures to emerge within his home country since the dawn…

Andrew Patterson’s Houses of Aotearoa

Andrew Patterson’s Houses of Aotearoa

“Cutting-edge New Zealand architecture will be highlighted on the global stage with the release of ‘Patterson: Houses of Aotearoa’ – a new UK-published book showcasing the work of the architecture…

Actress Thomasin McKenzie on LA Indie Panel

Actress Thomasin McKenzie on LA Indie Panel

Wellington-born actress Thomasin McKenzie, 18, star of Leave No Trace, recently attended the AFI Fest in Los Angeles, where she joined a panel to reflect on life in independent film. The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg…

Keisha Castle-Hughes Gets into the Ring

Keisha Castle-Hughes Gets into the Ring

New Zealander Keisha Castle-Hughes, 28, has packed a bit in since she travelled to Australia to promote the breakout 2002 New Zealand film Whale Rider, alongside director Niki Caro. Her latest role is in…

Wikipedia’s Man in NZ Is Mike Dickison

Wikipedia’s Man in NZ Is Mike Dickison

In the grand library of the Auckland War Memorial Museum on a Saturday morning in August, a small group of new and slightly nervous Wikipedia editors gathered for a day of training that would…

Japan’s Urban Experience Shot by Cody Ellingham

Japan’s Urban Experience Shot by Cody Ellingham

With his moody night-time shots of urban environments, New Zealand-born, Tokyo-based photographer Cody Ellingham tries to tap into the current of a city, to travel forward into its future or retreat into the past. Ellingham…

Journalist Gay Davidson Makes Media Hall of Fame

Journalist Gay Davidson Makes Media Hall of Fame

The late Gay Davidson has been inducted into the Australian Media Hall of Fame. The New Zealand-born journalist, who died in 2004, had the distinction of being the first female political correspondent for a…

Exploring the Planet with Phil Keoghan

Exploring the Planet with Phil Keoghan

National Geographic’s critically acclaimed documentary series Explorer recently returned to screens with breakthrough stories designed to magnify curiosity, innovation, news and information in its viewers. Hosted by New Zealander Phil Keoghan, the all-new 13-episode…

They Shall Not Grow Old – “Utterly Breathtaking”

They Shall Not Grow Old – “Utterly Breathtaking”

“Peter Jackson and team’s painstaking restoration of first world war footage is a cinematic triumph that all but brings young British soldiers back to life,” writes film critic Mark Kermode in a review published…

Thomasin McKenzie One of Hollywood’s Rising Young Stars

Thomasin McKenzie One of Hollywood’s Rising Young Stars

New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie, 18, has been featured on The Hollywood Reporter’s list of “Hollywood’s Rising Young Stars”. Bryn Elise Sandberg reports. “McKenzie’s grandmother, parents and siblings are all actors,…

Brendan Cole to Wow Audiences with Anniversary Performance

Brendan Cole to Wow Audiences with Anniversary Performance

“Dancing supremo Brendan Cole is bringing his fantastic footwork to Bradford, with his latest spectacular show All Night Long,” which will show at the Alhambra on November 13, writes Helen Mead in an article…

Redmond Wallis Diaries Enable Leonard Cohen Book

Redmond Wallis Diaries Enable Leonard Cohen Book

The research for Tanya Dalziell and Paul Genoni’s book Half the Perfect World: Writers, Dreamers and Drifters on Hydra, 1955-1964 has uncovered and drawn on many new first-hand accounts of Hydra’s artists and writers,…

Quilter Mary Jane Sneyd Shows in Houston

Quilter Mary Jane Sneyd Shows in Houston

New Zealand-born cancer epidemiologist Mary Jane Sneyd is exhibiting “Colour Blind” at the 2018 International Quilt Festival on in Houston in the United States from 9 until 11 November. The theme this year is:…

Production Wraps on Sam Kelly’s Savage

Production Wraps on Sam Kelly’s Savage

Wellingtonian Sam Kelly’s directorial debut Savage has now wrapped up production. The drama is inspired by the true stories of New Zealand’s street gangs and their founding members. Savage stars Australian actor Jake Ryan (The Great…

Ballerina Delia Mathews Embraces Role of Lise

Ballerina Delia Mathews Embraces Role of Lise

Described as “the funniest, sunniest English ballet masterpiece”, the curtain comes up on La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter) at Belfast’s Grand Opera House this week, and it stars principal dancer Rotorua-born Delia…

Vincent Ward’s Alien 3 a Fascinating Film

Vincent Ward’s Alien 3 a Fascinating Film

“For every glittering Hollywood project that hits cinemas, there’s a whole lot more that don’t make it,” the Guardian’s Tom Huddleston reports. Included in his top five is New Zealand-born photographer and filmmaker Vincent…

Poet Nina Powles Wins New UK Prize

Poet Nina Powles Wins New UK Prize

Wellington-born Nina Powles is one of the three recipients of the inaugural Women Poets’ prize, which aims to celebrate the empowerment of women and reward “creatively ambitious practitioners who are making or are capable…

NZ Police Makes the Most Entertaining Recruitment Ads

NZ Police Makes the Most Entertaining Recruitment Ads

“New Zealand Police has launched a follow up to its popular effort to make the ‘world’s most entertaining recruitment ad’, with a focus on diversity.” Charlotte McEleny reports for

Wade Goddard’s View of the Kosovo War

Wade Goddard’s View of the Kosovo War

New Zealand-born Wade Goddard’s new book, The Kosovo War captures the raw suffering of the conflict – but the veteran Balkan war photographer also tried to find courage and hope amid the bloodshed. In Goddard’s…

Artist Peter Waddell Paints D.C. Bird’s Eye Views

Artist Peter Waddell Paints D.C. Bird’s Eye Views

“I wanted a fire,” Hastings-born artist Peter Waddell said as he and Washington Post reporter John Kelly gazed upon one of a pair of his monumentally sized paintings. Waddell’s paintings are bird’s-eye views of Washington…

Empower Yourself at a Parris Goebel Workshop

Empower Yourself at a Parris Goebel Workshop

New Zealand-born dancer Parris Goebel shares with Vogue how she is inspiring the next generation of women with her own success. When you ask an artist about what they consider to be their first big…

Reframing How We Talk About Guns

Reframing How We Talk About Guns

“We do know that tough gun laws work in other developed countries.” But in the US unity of opinion on gun laws never materialized,” writes Timothy Dumas for Greenwich Magazine….

On Hydra with Writer Redmond Wallis

On Hydra with Writer Redmond Wallis

New Zealander Redmond Wallis plays a role in the new book, Half the Perfect World, which tells the story of the post-war international artist community that formed on the Greek island of Hydra, and…

Aaron Stadlin-Robbie Talks Mental on Podcast

Aaron Stadlin-Robbie Talks Mental on Podcast

In his experimental new podcast Talking Mental, Hong Kong-raised New Zealander Aaron Stadlin-Robbie asks professionals for advice on how to manage his anxiety attacks. The realisation that opening up helps Stadlin-Robbie feel more in control…

Francis Upritchard’s Barbican Show is Joyful

Francis Upritchard’s Barbican Show is Joyful

“New Zealand-born artist Francis Upritchard is renowned for drawing from craft traditions, and her installation ‘Wetwang Slack’ is no exception. Contrasting with the building’s Brutalist architecture,

Writing Saved Author Janet Frame

Writing Saved Author Janet Frame

Spanning unusual cruelty and extraordinary kindness, authors from New Zealander Janet Frame to Briton Pat Barker explore an unsettling branch of medicine. The Guardian looks at the top ten books about psychiatry and includes Frame’s…

Air New Zealand’s Place on the Global Runway

Air New Zealand’s Place on the Global Runway

With a brand promise of ‘liberating from the ordinary’ and plans to surprise, innovate, out-manoeuvre and challenge convention, Air New Zealand stands out on the world’s tarmac with its quirky attitude and humorous ads….

Mark de Clive-Lowe Unlocks His Creativity

Mark de Clive-Lowe Unlocks His Creativity

Auckland-born Mark de Clive-Lowe, 44, is “a jazz artist with both a visionary outlook and an old soul. As a concert pianist deeply steeped in the jazz tradition, he’s courageously committed himself to modern…

Hard-Rocking Band Like a Storm Tirelessly Touring

Hard-Rocking Band Like a Storm Tirelessly Touring

Known as one of the hardest working bands out there, Like A Storm fought hard to be heard. The three Auckland brothers who founded the group came to the United States knowing no one,…

Mongrelism by Jono Rotman Now in Print

Mongrelism by Jono Rotman Now in Print

“Arresting. Exquisite. Gripping. Chilling. Disgraceful. Unacceptable. These are all words people have used to describe portraits made by Jono Rotman. Created over the last decade, his project Mongrelism presents an…

Rhys Darby – From the Army to Flight of the Conchords

Rhys Darby – From the Army to Flight of the Conchords

“It was a long march for Rhys Darby to go from the New Zealand army to starring in Flight Of The Conchords, writes Richard Fitzpatrick” in an article in The Irish Examiner. After finishing…

‘Anything You Can Imagine’ Recounts Quest to Film Tolkien

‘Anything You Can Imagine’ Recounts Quest to Film Tolkien

“Reaching the final sentence in film writer Ian Nathan’s 576-page exploration of movie director Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy requires the stoicism of Frodo and the vigor of Gandalf. So much…

Dallas Symphony Names Gemma New As First Female Principal Guest Conductor

Dallas Symphony Names Gemma New As First Female Principal Guest Conductor

“Inaugurating a program to appoint a succession of female principal guest conductors, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra has named New Zealander Gemma New the first woman to hold the revived title,” writes Scott Cantrell in…

New Christchurch Library Featured in Designboom

New Christchurch Library Featured in Designboom

New earthquake-resistant library in Christchurch, named Tūranga, was featured in an article in Designboom. The new building by Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects “provides a 9,500 sqm public space that…

Peter Jackson Brings to Life WWI on The Big Screen

Peter Jackson Brings to Life WWI on The Big Screen

Peter Jackson “is up to his usual ambitious tricks in his latest project, the World War I documentary They Shall Not Grow Old,” writes Zack Sharf in an article for…

Music’s Most Powerful Tastemaker Zane Lowe

Music’s Most Powerful Tastemaker Zane Lowe

Auckland-born, LA-based radio host Zane Lowe “has been in the thick of the music industry for nearly 20 years — first as a presenter for MTV, than as the 13-year host of BBC Radio…