Register for Monthly Updates about Kiwis Rocking the World
Arts
Turning New Zealand into 1925 Montana
The Power of the Dog’s production designer Grant Major built the film’s ranch from the ground up on location in Jane Campion’s native New Zealand, which, thanks to its…
Returning to the ‘96 Crowded House Farewell
Twenty-five years ago, much-loved band Crowded House bid farewell to the world, performing a free concert at the Sydney Opera House to a crowd of more than 100,000 people….
With the Release of Time Flies Ladyhawke Opens Up
New Zealand dance pop artist Pip Brown, better known as Ladyhawke, talks to Belinda Quinn at NME about cancer, homophobia in the music industry and her new album Time…
Zoë Robins in Big Fantasy Show The Wheel of Time
“Fantasy and sci-fi is having a moment,” according to Vogue Australia journalist Charlie Calver. “The wave started with the debut of HBO’s Game of Thrones in 2011, …
Angela Tiatia Shows at Massive Matisse Exhibition
In the accompanying exhibition to the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ new blockbuster exhibition Matisse: Life & Spirit, contemporary artists, including New Zealander Angela Tiatia, re-contextualise, challenge and…
Jayne Nakata Promoting Women Podcasters in Japan
Jayne Nakata is a New Zealander living in the city of Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, and the voice behind the award-winning “Transformations with Jayne” podcast. Japan Times contributing writer Louise…
Tenor Simon O’Neill Nominated for Grammy Awards
Ashburton-born tenor Simon O’Neill, 50, has snagged two Grammy nominations for Best Choral Performance and Best Engineered Album in Classical, Radio New Zealand reports.
“I’m really thrilled, that was great…
Jane Campion Graces New York Times Magazine
“It has gotten easier over the years to feel comfortable with what work means to the world,” Jordan Kisner writes in a feature published in the New…
Ponsonby Period House Gets 21st Century Facelift
“An Edwardian house in the Ponsonby neighbourhood of Auckland, has been given a 21st-century facelift with a thorough redesign and a touch of minimalism – through an extension’s monolithic…
Film-Making Set Jane Campion Free
New Zealand’s “trailblazing director” Jane Campion speaks to The Guardian’s Sean O’Hagan about how the #MeToo movement inspired her first feature in more than a decade, “revisionist western”, The…
Peter Jackson Takes Us into the Locked Beatles Vault
Ahead of his epic series Get Back, the New Zealand director Peter Jackson reveals the secrets of 60 hours of intimate, unseen footage of the Fab Four – and…
Catching Up With Lucy Lawless On New Roles
Lucy Lawless, who currently stars in the television series My Life Is Murder, which screens in both New Zealand and the US, spoke to Forbes about doing voiceover animation,…
Wagner’s Ring Cycle Gets Bold Samoan Rework
Here is an insane undertaking: a small London-based arts collective, Gafa, run by singers of Samoan heritage, putting on a complete Ring cycle – four vast operas, almost 15…
What’s On Thomasin McKenzie’s Cultural Radar?
Wellington-born actor Thomasin McKenzie, who plays the lead in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, is interviewed for The Observer’s regular column, ‘On my radar’, one person’s snapshot of…
Riverdale Heartthrob KJ Apa Releases Debut Album
KJ Apa’s new album Clocks, is a “folky collection that shows off his flair for breezy affairs and seriously impressive guitar skills”, Nick Levine writes for NME. It’s also…
Film Pioneer Jane Campion Still Ahead of Her Time
“When French filmmaker Julia Ducournau took the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year for Titane, her wild explosion of body horror and gender politics, Jane Campion’s status in film…
Shihad Endures Through Struggles and Triumphs
In a story for ABC News, Dan Condon looks back at some of the key musical and personal moments in New Zealand band Shihad’s career.
In 1991, just three years…
Photographer Nicola Dove Shoots Iconic Bond Pic
Film stills photographer Nicola Dove, who hails from Nelson, has spent 20 years taking photos on sets. She’s photographed the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Liam Neeson, Dame Maggie…
Billy Apple an Artist Who Was His Own Life’s Work
“Over his long, provocative career, the artist Billy Apple changed his name, registered it as a trademark, branded products with it, had his genome sequenced and, finally,…
Mothers of the Revolution Unexpectedly Gripping
The third feature from New Zealand-based filmmaker Briar March is the “gripping documentary” Mothers of the Revolution, which celebrates the women protesters of Greenham Common. Wendy Ide reviews the…
Variety’s Power of Women Issue Features Lorde
For Variety’s 2021 Power of Women issue, the magazine spoke with several women in the entertainment industry, including New Zealand pop singer Lorde, who are using their voices to…
Alien Weaponry Standing Up for Māori Culture
The New Zealand metal band Alien Weaponry have gone global thanks to their forthright Māori-language songs, which confront colonial history and ongoing inequality, Matt Mills writes for a feature…
Musician Kaylee Bell Lights up Times Square
New Zealand country pop artist Kaylee Bell burst into tears when she was told her face is the cover of a new global playlist, Stuff’s Esther Ashby-Coventry reports, with Bell’s…
Rob Tennent’s Ode to Male Friendship and Summer
Summer in New Zealand can be a special kind of magic; the days of long ocean swims, covered in sand and sea salt and fingers dripping with fish and…
Lorde’s Album in Te Reo Reflects Us down Here
As an accompaniment to her latest work, Lorde has taken a different kind of leap: In homage to the history and landscape Aotearoa, she recorded a set of songs…
Director Jessica Hobbs Wins Emmy for The Crown
At the recent International Emmy Awards, held in New York, Christchurch-born director Jessica Hobbs won for best directing of a drama series, for her work on The Crown. Eva…
Flatiron Triplex Balances Elegance with Comfort
Architect David Howell and interior designer Steffani Aarons have reimagined a Flatiron District penthouse for a young New York family, reports Pilar Viladas in Introspective, the magazine of the…
Webtoon Creator Rachel Smythe Busy and Paid
When graphic design graduate, Rachel Smythe, 35, tried to get a foot in the door of New Zealand’s creative industry in 2008, she was rejected at every turn. But…
Kinetic Façade Brings NZ Pavilion To Life At Expo 2020
“A pioneering feat of engineering and craftsmanship, the New Zealand pavilion’s innovative façade made from a unique architectural mesh called Kaynemaile pays homage to the Māori way of life,”…
Hairy Maclary a New Zealander with Scottish Roots
Despite being one of Scotland’s most iconic children’s books, it has been revealed to the Scots that Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy is actually from New Zealand, Lisa Hodge…
Berlin-Based Poet Hinemoana Baker on Connections
Ahead of her recent reading at Internationales Literaturfestival Berlin (ILB), mould-breaking poet Hinemoana Baker talked English-language magazine Exberliner through her new book, the New Zealand-Berlin connection and why Germans…
You don’t need physics to appreciate Katherine Mansfield
In an entertainingly self-deprecating essay for Oxford University’s independent student newspaper Cherwell, Ben Jureidini apologies to the ghost of New Zealand short story master Katharine Mansfield for almost submitting…
Giant of Cinema Jane Campion Wins in Venice
New Zealand’s Jane Campion has “underlined her status as one of the leading film-makers of her generation, taking home the best director trophy at the Venice Film Festival”, AFP…
Spectacular David Howell creation is “the best furnished in New York City”
A spectacular apartment designed by NZ-born, New York-based architect David Howell and his team at DHD Architecture + Interior Design has been featured on Bravo TV’s Million Dollar…
Behind the Blissed-Out Comeback of Lorde
With this year’s release of her third studio album, Solar Power, pop star Lorde, 24, lights up the cover of the October issue of US Vogue, in nothing but a…
Jane Campion Returns to Film with Locally-Shot Western The Power of the Dog
The Power of the Dog marks a homecoming for Wellington-born Oscar winner Jane Campion – with a career-first twist, David Canfield reports for Vanity Fair.
Campion’s last feature was the 2009…
Jordan Bartlett’s YA Fantasy Novel Cover Released
The cover of New Zealand-born author Jordan Bartlett’s young adult fantasy novel, Contest of Queens, has been revealed, Elise Dumpleton reports for entertainment site, The Nerd Daily.
Bartlett, a…
Rose Matafeo Wants More Diversity in Rom-Coms
While shooting Season 2 of Starstruck, London-based New Zealander Rose Matafeo, 29, spoke to Harper’s Bazaar about its origin story, her dream guests, and how the stereotypes of rom-coms…
Journalist Charlotte Bellis Questions Taliban
New Zealander Charlotte Bellis was the only female journalist at the Taliban’s first official press conference in Afghanistan last week and her bold question to the group of armed…
Lorde’s Latest Album Too Complex to Be Basic
“Ever since people started slinging around the word basic as an insult, delights as disparate as pumpkin-spice lattes, the music of Lizzo, and sunsets have gotten a bad rap….
“Genius” Katherine Mansfield’s “frantic creative flourishing” collected in ‘Strange Bliss’
“One of the genuine, if frequently under-recognised, geniuses of 20th-century literature, Katherine Mansfield wrote the majority of her short stories during a frantic creative flourishing between 1920 and 1922…
Taika Waititi Behind Triumphant Reservation Dogs
Oscar-winning writer-director New Zealander Taika Waititi is co-creator of the “unforgettable (and caper-filled)” television series Reservation Dogs, a “portrait of a modern-day Native American community”, Inkoo Kang reports for…
Philip Roche’s Palm Springs ‘Desert Dreams’
Former Wellingtonian Philip Roche and his iconic Palm Springs Mid Century Modern feature in September’s issue of NZ House & Garden. His design and restoration of the ranch-style house…
Xena’s Lucy Lawless and Renee O’Connor Reunite
One of the most shipped couples in TV history, Xena and Gabrielle, are finally getting back together, Dominic Corry writes for Entertainment Weekly. New Zealander Lucy Lawless and American…
Pianist Ben Wilcock’s Fond Edinburgh Connections
When Hamilton-born Ben Wilcock signed up for a Fringe run with New Zealand’s Indian Ink Theatre Company in 2003, he had no idea that Edinburgh would play a recurring…
Connan Mockasin and His Dad Make an Album Together
“New Zealand psych rocker Connan Mockasin’s collaborative album with his dad, Ade, has bad jokes, stream-of-consciousness poetry, and an odd, undeniable appeal,” Pitchfork Raphael Helfand writes in a review…
Deep Dive into Peter Jackson’s Beatles Doco
“It’s the Beatles as none would ever see or hear them again – their last live performance as a group, 30 January 1969. It’s also the Beatles as none…
Conductor Gemma New Returns in Demand to US
New Zealand-born conductor Gemma New and Malaysian pianist Tengku Irfan, “among the leading young lights in the international classical music world”, worked together in July as guest artists at…
HUM Ups Visibility of New Zealand Artists Abroad
New Zealand doesn’t have a dedicated cultural diplomacy wing like the British Council or the Goethe-Institut. To help amplify New Zealand visual art on the global stage, Pauline Autet…
Obscure Podcast Get Flushed Rated Highly
“Many is the podcaster who talks crap, but New Zealander Pete (perhaps understandably, he prefers not to share his surname) gets down and dirty with actual effluent in Get…
Wellington-Made Jemaine Clement Comedy Explained
New Zealand-born comedian Jemaine Clement breaks down Wellington Paranormal for Vanity Fair and gives the Americans a crash course in New Zealand humo(u)r.
The series will also introduce American audiences to…
Lorde Sings Solar Power atop Ed Sullivan Theater
New Zealand pop singer Lorde, 24, was the musical guest on a recent episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where she performed the title track from her…
NY Gallery Exhibits Susan Te Kahurangi King
“A small feast of King’s extraordinary drawings is currently part of an absorbing and knowledgeably assembled group show at the Andrew Edlin Gallery in…
Authors Like Mansfield Found Solace in S France
“The shimmering azure of the Mediterranean, the dark green of the cypress trees, the scent of thyme, the sound of cicadas on the terrace at dusk … don’t we…
Local TV Shows Enlightening US Audiences
New Zealand and Australia “have long been in the business of making excellent television that American audiences really would dig,” Alexis Gunderson reports for entertainment news site, Vulture. “Never…
Māori-Influenced Umurangi Generation Compelling
“Umurangi Generation is as much a game of hide-and-seek as of photography: just as much time is spent exploring the warren-like scenes in order to locate the next item…
