Actor Manu Bennett Returns to TV Roots
Rotorua-born film and television star Manu Bennett, 46, one of the big drawcards at the recent 2016 Supanova Pop Culture Expo, cut his teeth as an actor on the Gold Coast back in 1993 as…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
8 Incredible NZ Artists
When “Lorde and her minimalist pop masterpiece ‘Royals’ gradually conquered the world in 2013, fans and critics alike in the US and Europe – and to a lesser extent in Australia – declared it…
Shanghai to Host Kiwi Film Festival
The 2016 New Zealand Film Festival will be hosted in Shanghai from April 21 to 30. 7 recent productions, which cover a wide range of genre and styles including biopic, romantic comedy and suspense,…
The Anatomy of Martin Henderson
New Zealand actor Martin Henderson spoke to DaMan about joining the cast of ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and staying true to his roots amid the glitz and glam of showbiz. When asked how he was…
Simon Richardson’s Mila Portrait off to Top UK Show
Dunedin artist Simon Richardson’s portrait of his seven-year-old daughter Mila is believed to be the first by a New Zealander to be chosen for the BP Portrait Award exhibition at the National…
Art Dealer Denis Savill Bows out after 35 Years
New Zealand-born art dealer Denis Savill, 75, doyen of the Sydney and Melbourne saleroom scene, is retiring – with Sotheby’s Australia handling a special sale of some of his 120 works by blue-chip artists…
Peter Bale at the Crux of Panama Papers Leak
Chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity, former Wairarapa Times-Age and Evening Post journalist Peter Bale, is the New Zealander central to the Panama Papers leak from Panamanian law firm Mossack…
NZ Photographers in New York City Exhibition
New Zealand artists Nichola Clark, Jonathan Pilkington, Claire Price, and Andrew B. White are featured in New York’s Ora Gallery’s exhibition Anthropocene Vision: Photography by Four Artists. Anthropocene…
‘The Guinea Pig Club’ Film on Sir Archibald McIndoe in the Works
‘The Guinea Pig Club’ about Sir Archibald McIndoe, the Kiwi plastic surgeon who gave horribly disfigured WWII pilots a reason to live, is just months away from getting the green light. Roger Donaldson, who directed The World’s…
Remote Eco-Cabin – A Gorgeous Seaside Getaway
The Seascape Retreat – a remote cabin on the Banks Peninsula designed by Auckland-based architecture firm Patterson Associates – boasts magnificent views, is built entirely from local materials and is 100% self-sufficient. “The cabin is one…
The Dark Horse Opens to Acclaim in US
James Napier Robertson’s film The Dark Horse, starring the “magnetic” Cliff Curtis, has opened in the United States to glowing reviews from critics. Robert Abele, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said: “star Curtis is…
Writer Maria Lewis Outdoes Tarantino
New Zealand-born journalist and author Maria Lewis has morphed from a crime reporter on the Gold Coast to pop-culture extraordinaire, has nabbed an international publishing deal and caught Quentin Tarantino’s attention, all by the…
1080p Founder Richard MacFarlane Taped
Founder of Vancouver-based cassette label 1080p, New Zealander Richard MacFarlane is making a name for himself for a brand, which “uniquely inspires producers while consuming the attention spans of aesthete trend-seekers in electronic music,”…
Blair Reeve’s New Children’s Book a Classic
Hong Kong-based New Zealander Blair Reeve, who mentors students at Chinese University in creative writing, has just published children’s book Hogart the Hedgehog Turns Nink, “an enormously fun book, and a gratifying one to…
Jemaine Clement Plays Joseph Banks in New Podcast
Jemaine Clement returns to radio playing Captain Cook’s botanist Lord Joseph Banks in the podcast The Mysterious Secrets of Uncle Bertie’s Botanarium, which is currently airing on the Howl app. Written by fellow New Zealander…
Peter Bruntnell an Alt-Country Genius
Album after album, the Kingston upon Thames solo artist, Wellington-born Peter Bruntnell produces rich and refined song-craft, yet hardly anyone has heard of him. Could this be his time? The Guardian’s Angus Batey considers…
Game of Thrones Star Joins Top of the Lake
Gwendoline Christie, who plays popular Game of Thrones character Brienne of Tarth, will join Mad Men star Elisabeth Moss in a new season of the much-praised Jane Campion TV show Top of the Lake,…
Simon Denny a Millennial Subversive
Look beyond the traditional spaces and what emerges are a group of Generation Y artists who are arguably more avant garde than ever, like New Zealander Simon Denny, 33. The Guardian enters a world…
David Bowie Saw Lorde As ‘the Future of Music’
David Bowie believed the young New Zealand singer Lorde was “the future of music”. “David really liked Lorde. They had a few wonderful moments together,” said Mike Garson, Bowie’s longtime pianist. Lorde was chosen to perform…
Martin Henderson Not Taking Fame Too Seriously
Just how did the star of Grey’s Anatomy New Zealander Martin Henderson, 41, get so comfortable with the slings and arrows of a business which can literally plaster you sky high on billboards one…
Lucy Lawless Separating Real Life from Xena
In an interview with Australia’s Sunrise breakfast television programme, New Zealand actor Lucy Lawless, who shot to fame with her role as Xena over 20 years ago, said she was more than happy to…
Sarah Bentley Curates Trans-Tasman Dialogue
Curator and art writer New Zealander Serena Bentley creates a dialogue between two Melbourne painters – Kate Smith and Meagan Wyke – and three Aucklanders – Schaeffer Lemalu, Patrick Lundberg, Campbell Patterson – in…
Introducing Bollywood-Potential Shirley Setia
Shirley Setia, a 22-year old Aucklander whose family hails from India, has attracted a large Indian and international following singing cover versions of Bollywood hits, Forbes contributor Rob Cain reports. The diminutive mezzo-soprano, who calls…
Director Taika Waititi’s New Film “A Love Letter to 1970s New Zealand Cinema”
Taika Waititi spoke with Vice about his new film Hunt for the Wilderpeople, which stars Julian Dennison, Sam Neill, Rachel House, Oscar Kightley and Rhys Darby and is based on Wild Pork and Watercress…
Sam Neill to Play Texan Patriarch in TV’s The Son
New Zealand actor Sam Neill will star in the AMC television network drama The Son, playing the patriarch of a Texas family in a multigenerational story of the clan’s rise and fall. Production on the…
Ladyhawke Is Back with Wild New Album
Pip Brown, better known as Ladyhawke, ARIA-winning maker of synth-pop hits such as Paris is Burning and My Delirium, is back with a new album. Wild Things was created in Los Angeles and is…
A Gemma New Deal Might Be Hard to Pass Up
“The orchestra scene in Southern California is keen for refreshment,” according to classical music critic Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times, who reviews the 29-year-old New Zealand conductor Gemma News’ recent “speed date”…
Jono Kenyon To Star in Shonda Rhimes ‘Toast’
Kiwi actor Jono Kenyon has landed the male lead in Toast – ABC’s hybrid comedy pilot from Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers’ Shondaland – alongside Grey’s Anatomy alumna Tessa Ferrer. “So excited to announce my next project! Lead role in an…
Mark Vette Teaching UK Dogs How to Fly Planes
New Zealander Mark Vette, a professional animal psychologist and zoologist, is currently working on new British television show, Dogs Might Fly. Vette, who taught Monty, the giant schnauzer, to drive a car,…
Lesley Vanderwalt’s Post-Apocalyptic Beauty Tips
New Zealand-born Lesley Vanderwalt, who won both an Oscar for hairstyling and make-up at this year’s Academy Awards and the equivalent at the 2016 BAFTAs, talks to Vogue about bringing Mad Max: Fury Road’s…
White Lies Unfolds with Inexorable Weight
The 2013 feature film by Mexican director Dana Rotberg, White Lies, is “quiet, graceful, stately and infused with slow tension,” according to New York Times reviewer Paul Wester. “Set in rural New Zealand, the movie…
Zoë Bell Stands in for Herself in Camino
Quentin Tarantino’s “favourite stunt double,” New Zealander Zoë Bell, 37, “sturdily stands in for herself” in Camino, a survival-thriller set in the jungles of Colombia circa 1985. The Los Angeles Times reviews the film: “Bell plays…
Flight of the Conchords Announce US Tour
The Flight of the Conchords return to stages in the United States playing at nearly 30 locations across the country in June and July, the first time the duo has toured since co-headlining 2013’s…
Where Teddy Tahu Rhodes Goes to Hide Out
The “pin-up boy of Australian opera”, New Zealand grand baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes, famous for his portrayal of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, talks with the Advertiser about how he unwinds and where he loves to…
Francis Upritchard’s Forlorn Figures Test Empathy
New Zealand born Francis Upritchard’s exhibition Jealous Saboteurs is on at Monash University’s Museum of Art (MUMA) in Melbourne. Robert Nelson reviews the show for the Sydney Morning Herald. “Upritchard has modified a group of…
Ulster Orchestra Welcomes New MD Richard Wigley
Former artistic manager at the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic boss, New Zealander Richard Wigley, 55, is the new managing director of the Ulster Orchestra. Wigley talks about “channelling the energy” of the orchestra…
KJ Apa Lands Archie Andrews Role in US
Eighteen-year-old New Zealand-born KJ Apa, best known for his Shortland Street role as Kane Jenkins, has been cast as Archie Andrews in US television network series Riverdale. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Riverdale had difficulty…
Translator Max Bickerton’s Haiku Legacy Discussed
“In the 1930s, a translator of Japanese literature from New Zealand was jailed and tortured by the Japanese police. His name was Max Bickerton or, more fully, William Maxwell Bickerton,” Japanese poet and translator…
Lorde Delivers Powerful Tribute to David Bowie
Lorde’s tribute to her hero David Bowie at this year’s BRIT Awards has been called “dignified”, “powerful” and “heartbreaking”. Singing Life on Mars with Bowie’s own backing band, Lorde’s was an “acid, disaffected take…
Chris Kraus’ I Love Dick Coming Soon to TV
Emmy Award-winning auteur Jill Soloway, creator of the gender- and genre-bending TV series Transparent, recently announced her next project: an adaptation of I Love Dick, Chris Kraus’s psycho-sexual epistolary novel about a married, failed…
Re-Examining The Piano’s Kinky Music Lessons
“Films about mute piano players embroiled in erotic love triangles never did become a burgeoning genre. Perhaps that’s because it’s virtually impossible to imagine another equalling writer/director Jane Campion’s 1993 magnum opus: an extraordinarily…
How Tragedy Turned Napier into Art Deco Wonder
“For Murray Houston, 3 February 1931 started out like any ordinary day. The now 91-year-old New Zealander was sitting inside the small wooden schoolhouse he attended in the coastal town of Napier, when the…
Melanie Lynskey Acts the Only Way She Can: Honestly
Actor Melanie Lynskey, the “genial” New Zealand-born star of HBO’s comedy-drama series Togetherness, is profiled in the Los Angeles Times. Lynskey’s expressions are somehow familiar, a visage seen in her countless television and film roles…
Tammy Davis’ Hit a Berlinale Favourite
Tammy Davis’ hip-hop drama Born to Dance, a “hidden gem” at this year’s Berlinale, has become the most unlikely of box-office hits Down Under. Born to Dance brought in more than $1 million in theatres…
Jemaine Clement Recalls David Bowie Snub
“Dave Grohl is only the latest to have revealed his rejection by David Bowie.” The Guardian also includes New Zealand’s very own Flight of the Conchords in its list of “10 of Bowie’s very…
Heavenly line for NYNZ artist Max Gimblett
“In fact, it was heavenly,” said Grafton, Auckland-born New York artist Max Gimblett, 80, on being invested as Officer of the Order of Merit Award by Governor General Sir Jerry Matapere. “I thought it would…
New Zealand Sky-High Trapeze Act in World Record Bid
Anna Cochrane, a New Zealand paramedic, has performed a static trapeze act while suspended on a hot air balloon at an altitude of more than 3,000m, in a bid to break the world record,…
Meeting Marlon Williams
“It seems as though Marlon Williams is a storyteller, first and foremost. There’s a character who lives within the fluidity of each song he sings, driven by every cord he strums,” writes Daniel Harris…
Standing Ovation for Gemma New in Ontario
Conductor Gemma New made her long-awaited mainstage debut in Ontario as the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s new music director, receiving a standing ovation from a huge crowd. Classical music writer for the Hamilton Spectator Leonard Turnevicius…
Owls Do Cry Continues to Astonish 60 Years On
The “modern masterpiece” Owls Do Cry, written by New Zealand author Janet Frame in 1957, “about siblings struggling with money, health and grief still has the power to unnerve and astonish,” writes Claire Hazelton…
Gin Wigmore Making Music at Home in California
“There are singers, and there’s Gin Wigmore,” according to Billboard. “The New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s raw, bluesy voice is so distinctive, some pundits are convinced it’s only a matter of time before the…
iZombie Star Rose McIver a Role Model for Fans
Rose McIver, the New Zealand actress who plays crime-solving zombie, Liv Moore, says the character has become an unlikely role model for many fans, which may explain why iZombie has been ratings gold for…
Finola Dwyer Wins Bafta
Irish emigrant saga Brooklyn, which was produced by New Zealander Finola Dwyer, was named best British picture on Sunday at the British Academy Film Awards. “The British awards, known as BAFTAs, are considered a portent…
Guardian Rates Uplifting Marlon Williams Debut
Marlon Williams’ self-titled debut album is described as “delicious, oddly uplifting misery”, in a review written by Michael Hann for the Guardian. “It’s hard to work out quite how the album from the young New…
Francis Upritchard Opens Her East London Home
In the commune-esque home of New Zealand-born artist Francis Upritchard and her husband, Italian designer Martino Gamper, the colourful trappings of life and work are uniquely integrated. The New York Times is invited into…
A Conversation with Simon Denny
Simon Denny has had a stellar year. The Berlin-based artist had his first significant United States museum solo show with MoMA PS1 presenting The Innovator’s Dilemma, he represented New Zealand at the 56th Venice Biennale…
