Get to Know the Brother-Sister Duo Broods
New Zealand duo Broods, comprised of Georgia and Caleb Nott, explain to Billboard magazine that they were born in Blenheim, but grew up in a town called Nelson. The name Broods was actually suggested…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Smokescreens Blend NZ Pop and NY Art Rock
Smokescreens is a New Zealand band currently based in Los Angeles. Founded by Chris Rosi following the demise of his previous band, Plateaus, the group recently performed at the Hotel Congress in Tucson, Arizona….
Edinburgh Hosts Comic Alice Snedden
“New Zealander Alice Snedden is well established in her native country as a comic, television writer and newspaper columnist, Fringe. It’s a breezy run-through of…
Conductor Gemma New Expands Her Horizons in Boston
It’s been a summer of unicorns and rainbows for New Zealand-born Gemma New, according to the Hamilton Spectator’s Leonard Turnevicius. For the second summer in a row, New, music director of the Hamilton Philharmonic…
Jemaine Clement Stars in New Comedy The Festival
One half of the world’s favourite (and only) digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy-folk double act, Jemaine Clement has more than a Flight of the Conchords reunion tour on his plate this year. He’s been working on getting…
Horndog is Rose Matafeo’s Moment
New Zealand-born comic Rose Matafeo’s show Horndog was a highlight of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe and it is also one of the London Evening Standard’s top picks to see in the UK capital. “Insatiable comedy fans…
Rolling Stone Loves The Beths’ Future Me
This spring, Elizabeth Stokes, 27, quit her day job teaching trumpet to kids in Auckland. The reason: She was ready to tour the world with The Beths, the exuberant pop-punk band she’d started with…
Travelling to Potter Paul Lorimer’s Okinawa Haven
Few people visit the Japanese village of Shinzato in Okinawa with its attractive but modest residencies and kitchen gardens. The evident lack of a centre to the settlement made finding the new home of…
Thomasin McKenzie Joins Top Gun Sequel
Kiwi actress Thomasin McKenzie joins the cast of Top Gun sequel Top Gun: Maverick opposite Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Glen Powell, Jennifer Connelly and Miles Teller. Dave Trumbore reports for
Skateboard Photographer Jake Darwen Takes Off
Skateboard photographer Jake Darwen, 25, who grew up on Auckland’s North Shore and is now based in Los Angeles, shoots for the likes of New Balance and Element, often travelling to offbeat destinations in…
Meet the Feebles Inspires Happytime Murders Writer
Danny Mulheron, Meet the Feebles writer, and American scriptwriter Todd Berger – for the R-rated puppet comedy, The Happytime Murders – recount almost 30 years of bad taste for an article in The Hollywood…
The Meg An “Utterly Outrageous Thrillfest”
“The Meg is Jaws turned up to 11, an over-the-top creature feature starring a 20-metre-long prehistoric killing machine that comes from the very bottom of the ocean to cause havoc…
Castle Rock Star Melanie Lynskey Loves It Creepy
Melanie Lynskey talks to Entertainment Tonight about her role on the hotly anticipated series, Castle Rock. The New Zealand-born actress opens up about why this particular type of horror –…
David Farrier Flies into the City of the Dead
“The capital city of Turkmenistan is blisteringly dry and hot, dumped in the middle of the desert. It also holds the record for the highest density of buildings made from white marble, which bounce…
Taika Waititi Joins Watts and Waltz on Venice Jury
New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi and actors Naomi Watts and Christoph Waltz join the main jury of the Venice Film Festival, which will be presided over by director Guillermo del Toro, the winner of…
Lucy Lawless Lands Lead in Australian TV Series
She’s known for fighting the forces of evil in ‘90s cult television show Xena: Warrior Princess. Now it has been announced that New Zealander Lucy Lawless, 50, has landed an exciting role in the…
Royals Makes Top Best Female Songs of the Century
An NPR Music list of the 200 Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women has put Lorde’s debut smash hit, the 2013 “Royals”, in the top 10. According to NPR, the songs are by artists whose…
Pitchfork Fave Created by Parris and Ciara
The Parris Goebel-choreographed “Level Up”, a track sung by American singer-songwriter Ciara, who joins New Zealand’s ReQuest Dance Crew on the dance floor, is one of American online music magazine Pitchfork’s favourite videos for July. “It’s hard…
Antipodean Women Deliver Summer of Laughter to UK
This summer, an influx of female antipodean standup comedians, variety acts and sitcom stars are reshaping the way Britain views New Zealand and Australia. Observer arts and media correspondent Vanessa Thorpe reports. Tempting though it…
Simon Denny Weighs in on Blockchain and Art
From verification tools for provenance and authenticity to new approaches to art collecting and even new art forms, blockchain’s impact on the art world is already undeniable. During this year’s Art Basel Conversations, journalist…
Wagnerian Superstar Simon O’Neill in Edinburgh
The best of Bernstein, Brahms, Hungarian classical and Wagner’s Ring Cycle are among the classical highlights of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, and Ashburton-born opera singer Simon O’Neill, 47, is one of the must-sees,…
Who is Dark Tourist Host David Farrier?
If you can’t get enough of quirky documentaries on Netflix then you might want to check out Dark Tourist, hosted by New Zealander David Farrier, suggests Caroline Westbrook writing for the UK’s Metro newspaper. This…
Meet Travel Blogger Tara Povey
New Zealand-born Tara Povey, a former pharmacist, runs her blog, whereistara.com from her home in Dublin. She talks to Denise O’Donague from the Irish Examiner about her career shift, and her award-winning Instagram account. Povey,…
With The Adults Jon Toogood Forms Musical Union
“A set of eight songs inspired by the sounds he heard at his wedding in Sudan four years ago, Haja is unlike anything Jon Toogood, 46, has released to date,” according to The Australian’s…
Breaker Uppering a Bit Morally Ambiguous
Australian city guide Broadsheet chats to the makers of The Breaker Upperers, a new comedy making it big at the prestigious South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. The film was created by…
Photojournalist Wade Goddard’s New Croatian Mission
New Zealand-born photojournalist Wade Goddard, who in 2003 set up the War Photo Limited gallery in Dubrovnik, Croatia, has had a hand in opening the country’s first crowdfunded museum in Zagreb. Paid for by members…
Fire in Cardboard City Extremely Realistic
“The clever and freewheeling nine-minute animated short Fire in Cardboard City, directed by Phil Brough, which had its US debut at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, is a mini disaster movie that…
Melanie Lynskey Stars in Stephen King Thriller
“Castle Rock is a giant basket of Easter eggs for King people, but for the rest of us it’s a decent show layered with supernatural secrets waiting to be decoded,” according to John…
Composer Gemma Peacocke Premieres Work in US
New Zealand-born, New Jersey-based composer Gemma Peacocke will premiere a piece called “Skirl” at this week’s Mizzou International Composers Festival in Missouri. The word “means both the shrill sound of a bagpipe and the keening…
New Allen Curnow Collection Masterly in Breadth
Allen Curnow, who died in 2001 at the age of 90, was one of the greatest New Zealand writers: poet, verse dramatist, critic, groundbreaking and controversial anthologist. Principally through the agency of late literary…
Parris Goebel and ReQuest Stars of Ciara’s Latest
New Zealand choreographer Parris Goebel and ReQuest Dance Crew have collaborated with Atlanta-bred pop star Ciara for the music video of her latest single, the “empowering anthem”, ‘Level Up’. “The visual features the singer showing…
Even Bigger Steven Adams Wows in San Diego
For four days during the annual Comic-Con, the San Diego Convention Center is a treasure trove of everything pop culture fans love: comics, super heroes, super villains, video games, movies, TV shows, books and…
Graduate Aïcha Wijland Wins London Design Award
University of Otago advertising graduate Aïcha Wijland says rebellious student culture was behind her edgy, award-winning redesign of classic cartoon character Beryl the Peril – the female equivalent of Dennis the Menace. Wijland has…
Wax Chattels Pursue Post-Punk with Manic Fervour
“There are few record labels out there that have come to define an entire country’s quality independent music output. Flying Nun Records did that for New Zealand,” Adam McKinney writes for Washington-based entertainment newspaper…
Ruth Park’s the Harp in the South Now A Stage Play
“My first publishing negotiation for Ruth Park was conducted in 1971, in Angus and Robertson’s rabbit warren of offices in Lower George Street. Ruth was already a distinguished writer,” Park’s longtime literary agent Tim…
Marlon Williams on His Writing Process
The most popular and persistent myth attached to the songwriting process is that artists are driven by an absolute, desperate need to do it. As cliché has it, there’s never much choice involved in…
Author Eleanor Catton on the Books That Changed Her
New Zealand Booker Prize-winning novelist Eleanor Catton recently spoke with The Guardian on the crackpot astrological study she’d like to write, and the book she finds “dishonest, pious and vengeful”, for the newspaper’s regular…
Leslie Bowman Part of West End Antidote to Trump
Through the story of 18th-century Founding Father of America, Alexander Hamilton, and the American Wars of Independence, blockbuster stage musical Hamilton is fiercely relevant today, and especially last week, when President Donald Trump brought…
How Lorde Defied Misogyny and Expectations
It is a just over a year ago since the release of Lorde’s second album, Melodrama. Ordinarily, a retrospective would be premature, but Melodrama already merits one, according to Brian O’Flynn writing for The…
National Geographic to Feature Whanganui River
When the Whanganui River was given legal personhood Danish freelance photographer Mathias Svold was so intrigued by the headlines that he went to Washington DC in the United States to pitch a story for…
Ruban Nielson Talks Music & NZ Artists
Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s “lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Ruban Nielson takes influence from a diverse group of artists ranging from Stevie Wonder to punk act the Buzzcocks to musical iconoclast Frank Zappa,” writes Carlos De Loera in…
Andrew Niccol’s Truman Show 20 Years On
Jim Carrey, Peter Weir, New Zealand-born screenwriter Andrew Niccol, Laura Linney, and Sherry Lansing thought their paranoid dramedy The Truman Show seemed absurd – until life began to imitate art. In the 1990s, as Canadian…
Anna Paquin: “You Don’t Do It for Fame, Finance or Glory”
“Sitting down with Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge, Paquin discussed the release of her newest independent movie at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic.” Tara Bitran reports for
Ali Smith Marvels at Katherine Mansfield’s Letters
New Zealand novelist Kirsty Gunn was in London recently listening to Scottish author Ali Smith talk about Katherine Mansfield. Gunn’s article about the event appears in The Scotsman. “ talk, hosted by the
Two NZ Comedians Part of Netflix Global Comedy Event Series
Netflix “is launching an international stand-up comedy event series that will feature 47 comedians from 13 regions”. New Zealand comedians Urzila Carlson and Cal Wilson are part of the line-up. Anita Bennett reports for…
Taika Waititi Reveals Details of ‘Jojo Rabbit’
New Zealand “director Taika Waititi has revealed more details of his upcoming projects Jojo Rabbit and Bubbles.” Orlando Parfitt reports for Screen Daily. “Waititi told Screen at the Karlovy Vary Film…
Cellist Yuuki Bouterey-Ishido Exhilarates
“On the last flaming day of June, a packed Lancaster Town Hall stood at the end to acclaim another Haffner Orchestra’s triumphant summer concert. The star of the show was a new up-and-coming young…
Ashleigh Young Turns a Lyrical Eye
“When I uprooted my family from Seattle this year to move to Wellington, I knew little of the foreign, faraway place beyond its reputation for grey days and great coffee,” Maggie Trapp writes for…
Soprano Claire Egan Makes Violetta Her Own
Understudies rarely get the opportunity to have their names in bright lights, but a sequence of mishaps at the UK’s Longborough Festival Opera gave New Zealand-born soprano Claire Egan, 34, a starring role in one…
Thomasin McKenzie a Force of Nature
Might Debra Granik’s latest film launch New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie into the same stratosphere as the Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence? Vanity Fair investigates. Granik’s work feels like a salve to the kinetic blockbuster that fuels…
Yellow Is Forbidden Auckland Premiere
After premiering to fantastic reviews at Tribeca Film Festival, New York, Pietra Brettkelly’s Yellow Is Forbidden will be shown in Auckland at the upcoming New Zealand International Film Festival. “Kiwi director…
Ink Artist Steve Butcher’s Latest Eerily Lifelike
Irish UFC fighter Conor McGregor has been immortalised in a brilliantly detailed tattoo by famed ink artist, Aucklander Steve Butcher. Butcher spent 12 hours on the eerily lifelike tat on a…
Dance Prodigy Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson in Houston
The past year has been a whirlwind of events for professional ballet dancer Joshua Guillemot-Rodgerson, Jonathan Guildford writes for Stuff. The Christchurch-born ballet prodigy has started his first professional job with the Houston Ballet company…
New Netflix Show for Tickled’s David Farrier
“If you’re a weird-documentary fetishist, you’re probably already obsessed with Tickled, an unbelievably strange saga featuring underground ‘tickle cells’ and a scheming, shadowy figure who spends thousands of dollars to ruin people’s lives,” Andrew…
Rare ISS Moon Shot Captured by Josh Kirkley
Auckland amateur astrophotographer Josh Kirkley captured a shot so unusual the cameraman can be heard gasping as he films clip. Kirkley describes his “shock” at capturing footage of the International Space Station (ISS) crossing…
Billy Apple in Hong Kong and in Focus
To present 21 works in Hong Kong, spanning approximately six decades (1962–2018), is an unusual occasion for Billy Apple, a groundbreaking New Zealand-born artist whose pop-infused conceptual practice is mostly acknowledged in New Zealand,…
