News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Nadia Reid’s New LP an Ode to Self-Reflection

Nadia Reid’s New LP an Ode to Self-Reflection

Nadia Reid’s new video for The Arrow and The Aim, taken from her forthcoming album Preservation, was shot in an abandoned house surrounded by stunning landscapes in Mt Somers, just outside of Christchurch. “I guess…

Erakah’s Story of Musical Success

Erakah’s Story of Musical Success

Born in Fiji, Erakah spent part of her early years in the country before being adopted by a family in New Zealand. Over there she discovered she had a talent for singing resulting in…

John Feeney’s Kenojuak Returns to Screen in US

John Feeney’s Kenojuak Returns to Screen in US

Ngaruawahia-born John Feeney’s 1964 short film Eskimo Artist: Kenojuak, about Kenojuak Ashevak, the first Inuit woman involved with a printmaking co-operative in Cape Dorset, Canada, was recently shown at the Brunnier Art Museum in…

Conductor Grant Cooper Brings a Heavy Hitter

Conductor Grant Cooper Brings a Heavy Hitter

Guest conductor New Zealand-born Grant Cooper recently packed his SUV with a homemade, giant hammer and drove from West Virginia to Albuquerque to lead the New Mexico Philharmonic through the hammer blows of fate…

Connecting with Director Tusi Tamasese

Connecting with Director Tusi Tamasese

A gripping film about redemption and the relationships that can ultimately lead to a fresh start, One Thousand Ropes left audiences eager to question Samoan New Zealand director Tusi Tamasese after its world premiere…

Tape Face Hits Vegas

Tape Face Hits Vegas

New Zealand performance artist Sam Wills, aka Tape Face, has begun a highly anticipated residency at The Flamingo in Las Vegas. He doesn’t call himself a mime, but he swears that’s only “because I know…

Taika Waititi named New Zealander of the Year

Taika Waititi named New Zealander of the Year

“Hunt for the Wilderpeople director Taika Waititi has been named as the 2017 New Zealander of the Year,” as reported on TV3.ie. “I just found out the news. Wow, amazing. Thank you so…

Bending Time With Artist Daniel Crooks

Bending Time With Artist Daniel Crooks

The New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist Daniel Crooks is known for his technically precise, hypnotic video work. His new show, Parabolic, on at Anna Schwartz Gallery in Melbourne, is about subverting our simplistic,…

Ladyhawke Truly Compels in Manchester

Ladyhawke Truly Compels in Manchester

“Synth-pop legend Ladyhawke delivered a flawless performance at the intimate Manchester Academy 3 venue” playing “a set of old and new tracks from her decade career in the music scene,” Mancunion journalist Lydia Ransome…

The Inland Road Makes for a Satisfying Debut

The Inland Road Makes for a Satisfying Debut

“In the stunned aftermath of a fatal road accident, a directionless 16-year-old half-Maori runaway drifts with unpredictable consequences into the lives of strangers in New Zealander Jackie van Beek’s assured first feature, The Inland…

Disney Coup for Director Niki Caro

Disney Coup for Director Niki Caro

The new live-action Mulan remake has secured Whale Rider director Niki Caro to helm. According to online women’s magazine, Bustle, “The Hollywood Reporter issued the reminder that Caro will be only Disney’s…

Celebrity Endorsements Around Every Corner

Celebrity Endorsements Around Every Corner

She lives in one of the most picturesque and exclusive areas in California – Montecito. But even media mogul Oprah Winfrey, 63, was blown away by New Zealand’s stunning views, while taking a break…

Lindauer Portraits a Window into Colonial History

Lindauer Portraits a Window into Colonial History

“Gottfried Lindauer’s portraits present a collective history of colonial New Zealand, capturing individual identities in a time of great social change and upheaval,” Hyperallergic correspondent Claire Voon writes in a review of the recent…

Neil Finn’s Sound a Lifelong Process

Neil Finn’s Sound a Lifelong Process

Neil Finn will headline the second Skyfields outdoor concert at the picturesque Bluff headland in Devonport, Tasmania on 11 March, and will be joined on stage by Crowded House member Nick Seymour. “We’ll be able…

Kane Strang’s New Tunes Very Good Indeed

Kane Strang’s New Tunes Very Good Indeed

Newly signed to American label, Dead Oceans, singer-guitarist New Zealander Kane Strang is “amping up and plotting a new record,” according to DIY magazine’s El Hunt. “‘Oh So You’re Off I See’ is one of two…

Parris Goebel Was Born to Dance

Parris Goebel Was Born to Dance

Parris Goebel’s father tells the BBC that his daughter, “a blessing”, was dropped off by a space ship. And it’s a good thing it did. The 24-year-old choreographer from Manurewa, South Auckland is changing…

KJ Talks Candidly about the World of Archie

KJ Talks Candidly about the World of Archie

Welcome to the scandalous, abs-filled, hormonal world of Riverdale. The CW teen drama has taken a decidedly broodier and definitely sexier take on the Archie comics, and a lot of that has to do…

Jude Broughan’s Athenree on in New York

Jude Broughan’s Athenree on in New York

“At first glance, the work in ‘Athenree,’ the new exhibition by New Zealand-born, Brooklyn-based artist Jude Broughan up now through 25 February at New York’s Benrubi Gallery, is hard to dig into,”…

Phil Keoghan’s Le Ride Screens at US Festival

Phil Keoghan’s Le Ride Screens at US Festival

New Zealander Phil Keoghan, host of the popular television show The Amazing Race, will open the American Documentary Film Festival on 31 March with Le Ride, which had its world premiere at…

Photographer Stephen Mowbray Snaps Rodeo Glory

Photographer Stephen Mowbray Snaps Rodeo Glory

It is New Zealand-born Stephen Mowbray’s job to capture the very best in eventing, reining, polo, show jumping, dressage, carriage driving, cutting, campdraft and rodeo – in the past two weeks he covered world-qualifying…

Michael Jackson Chimp Movie Attracts Taika Waititi

Michael Jackson Chimp Movie Attracts Taika Waititi

Thor: Ragnarok director New Zealander Taika Waititi has signed on to direct Bubbles, a stop-motion animated film about Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee, alongside Emmy Award-winning Mark Gustafson. “It’s an idea that fascinates me and one…

Frankie Adams the Unfindable Expanse Actress

Frankie Adams the Unfindable Expanse Actress

The men behind adapting the popular Expanse novels to the screen faced a massive challenge in season two – finding the perfect actor to play beloved favourite, Bobbie Draper. And they found her, in…

One Thousand Ropes Premieres in Berlin

One Thousand Ropes Premieres in Berlin

“Childbirth becomes a powerful vessel for renewal in this deeply felt drama about a Samoan former fighter atoning for the violence that divided his family and exiled him to solitude,” the Hollywood Reporter’s David…

Trygve Wakenshaw Back for Mime Fun in Perth

Trygve Wakenshaw Back for Mime Fun in Perth

After a year away from Perth’s Fringe World Festival, New Zealand comedian Trygve Wakenshaw returned to Western Australia, performing the highly-anticipated third work in his “underwater trilogy”, Nautilus. Wakenshaw also performs his collaboration with…

Hucci Puts Life to Trap in New Single

Hucci Puts Life to Trap in New Single

Trap is a genre born and bred in the American South, but it is a sound Britain’s grimiest producers have embraced as their own, including Brighton-based New Zealand-born Ollie O’Neil, aka Hucci. Trap mixes slow,…

Tane Mahuta Puts Down Roots in Melbourne

Tane Mahuta Puts Down Roots in Melbourne

Tourism New Zealand is bringing the rich history of Tane Mahuta to Melbourne’s CBD with a new eight-week campaign, “Every day’s a different journey in Northland”. The out-of-home campaign is focused around a giant art…

Author Paul Feenstra on Reading the Signs

Author Paul Feenstra on Reading the Signs

Wellington-born-turned-Long-Beach-resident author Paul Feenstra said a “No Trespassing” sign was the start of his new career in historical fiction writing. On a visit to New Zealand in 2009 after more than 25 years away, Feenstra…

Sundance Grand Jury Winner Stars Melanie Lynskey

Sundance Grand Jury Winner Stars Melanie Lynskey

The presciently titled I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, starring New Plymouth-born actor Melanie Lynskey, pulled off a surprise victory at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Awards ceremony taking the grand…

Taika Waititi Talks Thor: Ragnarok

Taika Waititi Talks Thor: Ragnarok

“It came as a large surprise to many when Marvel announced that it would be handing Thor: Ragnarok’s directorial reigns over to New Zealand film director, actor and comedian Taika Waititi,” writes Tiny Diapana…

Mary Kills People Star Jay Ryan Takes the Risk

Mary Kills People Star Jay Ryan Takes the Risk

Auckland-born actor Jay Ryan, 35, best known for his roles as Jack Scully in the Australian soap opera Neighbours and Vincent Keller in the American television series Beauty & the Beast, now has a…

Parris Goebel a Feminist Hip Hop Force

Parris Goebel a Feminist Hip Hop Force

New Zealand-born commercial choreographer and dancer Parris Goebel has been named one of “25 to watch in 2017” by Dance Magazine. The magazine said: “Goebel is the feminist force hip hop has been waiting for….

Ten Memorable Flying Nun Moments

Ten Memorable Flying Nun Moments

To mark a new LP from New Zealand’s The Bats, the Guardian takes a look back at ten of the best moments from the label that spawned them. “Founded in 1981 by Christchurch-based Roger Shepherd,…

Melanie Lynskey Teams up with Elijah Wood

Melanie Lynskey Teams up with Elijah Wood

New Zealand-born actor Melanie Lynskey, 39, stars alongside Elijah Wood in crime thriller I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, which premiered at this month’s Sundance Film Festival. Collider’s Matt Goldberg reviews…

Roy Brewster’s Remaking of the Visual World

Roy Brewster’s Remaking of the Visual World

“No right angles.” That was the decree Roy Brewster set for himself and stood firmly by throughout his life. The New Zealander, born in 1905 in Taranaki, instead embraced angles of 120˚; he was…

KJ Apa’s Dark Take on Comic Book Archie

KJ Apa’s Dark Take on Comic Book Archie

Star of American television show Riverdale, New Zealand actor KJ Apa’s take on the high school sophomore Archie goes far deeper than the inevitable love triangle situating him as the “good guy” between BFFs…

Trio of Films to Screen at Berlin Film Festival

Trio of Films to Screen at Berlin Film Festival

Three New Zealand films will screen at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Poi E: The Story of Our Song and new-comer, The Inland Road, directed by Jackie van Beek, will both feature in the Generation…

Posters Inspired by Taika Waititi’s Hit Film

Posters Inspired by Taika Waititi’s Hit Film

For Little White Lies’ latest creative brief, the film magazine asked its readers to design a wanted poster inspired by Taika Waititi’s “charming” 2016 comedy Hunt for the Wilderpeople. “We were blown away by the standard…

Long-Lasting Significance Of LOTR Trilogy

Long-Lasting Significance Of LOTR Trilogy

On the 15th anniversary of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, actors Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen reflect on the trilogy’s indelible impression. The film series was…

Jemaine Clement’s David Bowie-Ode Best in Moana

Jemaine Clement’s David Bowie-Ode Best in Moana

“He may appear in just one scene, but Tamatoa, the glam rock crustacean voiced by Flight of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, is quite possibly Moana’s most appealing character,” according to Slate’s Marissa Martinelli. “Now you…

Shortland Street’s KJ Apa Hits US TV Screens

Shortland Street’s KJ Apa Hits US TV Screens

Archie’s certainly not a kid anymore. Or at least not the same kid we knew from the old Archie comics, according to USA Today. He’s a hot, ripped 16-year-old, and a New Zealander –…

Why US Poet James Galvin Is like New Zealand

Why US Poet James Galvin Is like New Zealand

American poet James Galvin’s “Why I Am Like New Zealand” featured in the New York Times recently. Why I Am Like New Zealand My feet stick out from beneath the sheet, Pointing to where death thrives. I am…

Brendan Cole Talks Strictly Ahead of Liverpool Show

Brendan Cole Talks Strictly Ahead of Liverpool Show

Christchurch-born dancer Brendan Cole, 40, is currently putting together his new tour, All Night Long, which he will take to Liverpool in February. Local newspaper Liverpool Echo talks with Cole about the tour, and…

George Ash Driving Australian Music Industry

George Ash Driving Australian Music Industry

Meet the third most important person in the Australian music industry – none other than Universal Music Group’s head honcho, New Zealander George Ash. Ash’s pursuit of creating new “revenue streams” for his artists…

Michael Seresin’s House at Waterfall Bay

Michael Seresin’s House at Waterfall Bay

Top New Zealand-born cinematographer has worked with Alan Parker, Mickey Rourke, and Ryan Gosling, but his holiday house at Waterfall Bay in the Marlborough Sounds is far from the hustle of Hollywood, writes Michella…

Vogue Features Derek Henderson’s Crystalline Series

Vogue Features Derek Henderson’s Crystalline Series

New Zealand-born fine art photographer Derek Henderson has teamed up with local jewellery makers Melanie Kamsler and Tamila Purvis of Maniamania, creating a series of prints with a focus on the brand’s “mainstay material”,…

As Seen in China by Tom Hutchins

As Seen in China by Tom Hutchins

Before New Zealander Tom Hutchins died at the age of 86 in 2007, he and fellow photographer American John Turner completed, after two decades of work, a master list of Hutchins’ choice of his…

2017 Will Be the Year of Our Lorde

2017 Will Be the Year of Our Lorde

With Coachella and Governors Ball 2017 festival announcements, it has become clear that New Zealand alt-pop singer Lorde’s comeback is about to happen, according to Billboard. “Most popular artists announce they are returning from an…

Tim Finn Brings Musical Ladies In Black Home

Tim Finn Brings Musical Ladies In Black Home

A musical written by New Zealander Tim Finn is heading to Sydney for the very first time as part of the Sydney Festival, which takes over the city from 7-29 January. Finn wrote…

Connan Mockasin’s Faking Jazz Together in Spotlight

Connan Mockasin’s Faking Jazz Together in Spotlight

A Connan Mockasin song features on an Independent list of most-listened-to tracks the UK newspaper’s staff played the most last year on Spotify. “Oddly, my most-listened to track of 2016 wasn’t from this year at all, but…

Aaradhna Singer Putting NZ R&B Scene On Notice

Aaradhna Singer Putting NZ R&B Scene On Notice

In 2016, Aaradhna Patel put NZ’s R&B scene on notice with her fourth LP, Brown Girl, going to number one and her refusal to accept the award for Best Hip-Hop Artist at this year’s…

Hunt For The Wilderpeople Best Movie of 2016

Hunt For The Wilderpeople Best Movie of 2016

Hunt for the Wilderpeople has topped Empire Magazine’s list of top movies (released in the UK) of 2016. “To say that Hunt For The Wilderpeople was a surprise is perhaps overstating it. Anyone…

Tami Neilson Shows Soul & Sass On ‘Don’t Be Afraid’

Tami Neilson Shows Soul & Sass On ‘Don’t Be Afraid’

New Zealand-based “songstress Tami Neilson delivers a powerful blend of soul and sass on her sophomore LP, a combination that’s compelling enough to convince anyone who was heretofore unawares just how powerful her potential…

Flight Of The Conchords One of The Best Comedy Bands In History

Flight Of The Conchords One of The Best Comedy Bands In History

New Zealand’s comedy duo Flight Of The Conchords has been labelled one of the best comedy bands in history in an article in Tonedeaf. “Although they’re now best known for their eponymous HBO…

Moana – A Magical Addition to Disney’s Collection

Moana – A Magical Addition to Disney’s Collection

“Moana is both a revival of the Disney classic and a bold step away from their time honored tales,” writes Meredith Placko in a review for Comicbook.com. “While she may be the daughter…

Thinking Outside the Accom Box

Thinking Outside the Accom Box

New Zealander Shane Blind has created a novel micro-house out of a 6m shipping container that has a couple of pop-outs at its centre, allowing him to get around the problem of narrowness, Kimberley…

It’s Cal Wilson’s Line

It’s Cal Wilson’s Line

When it comes to improvised comedy, Cal Wilson, 46, is no rookie, Vanessa Williams writes for the West Australian. Having built a solid stand-up career over the past 19 years, the Christchurch-born, Melbourne-based comedian…