Tinkerbell Now Brain-Eating Med Student in Zombie Series
24 March 2014 – Star of American series Once Upon A Time New Zealander Rose McIver, who played Tinkerbell in the show, has been cast in the lead role of medical student Liv in…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Pulp a Handsome Cinematic Homage to Unique Band
A documentary about Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker directed by New Zealander Florian Habicht (pictured) is a “witty, warmhearted, imaginative documentary about the British farewell hometown show”, says a review in the Hollywood Reporter. “Though…
Kiwi Royalty Thrills Chicago
21 March 2014 – The long and the short of it is if you’re a Kiwi in America you support one another. New Zealand’s two most famous US exports – basketball prodigy Steven Adams…
Yumi Zouma Instantly Poignant and Placeless
“Assembled via email, at night, from far-flung corners of the globe is the debut EP from these ex-pat New Zealanders,” Guardian reviewer Paul Lester writes, including Yumi Zouma in the publication’s “Band of the…
Surprise Advance and BBC Film Deal for NZ Author
Author Deborah McKinlay, formerly of Auckland, has received a seven-figure advance and a lucrative film deal for her new book, That Part Was True. McKinlay, who had been making a living as a jobbing non-fiction…
Waiheke Island a Paradise for Art Lovers
“Waiheke Island is upscale Auckland’s offshore beach resort of choice – but its thriving creative community means it’s also a paradise for art lovers of all types,” according to Time Out Dubai. In an…
Sun City Poms Ageing Gracefully in Vivid Colour
When New Zealand-born advertising and fine art photographer Todd Antony was shooting landscapes in the southwestern United States in 2009 he came upon Sun City, Arizona, a desert retirement community of approximately…
Perceptive Debut Novel Immediately Engrossing
Twenty-one-year-old Sebastian Hampson, an art history and literature student at Victoria University, writes with an assurance that belies his years, according to the Australian, and his debut novel The Train to Paris, inspired by…
Echo Park Band Gets It Right in Los Angeles
New Zealand singer-songwriter, Bradley Hanan Carter (pictured second from left), 33, is founder of Los Angeles sextet, NO which is celebrating the launch of its debut album El Prado with a tour at legendary…
‘Housebound’ Debuts at SXSW
Is the New Zealand horror-comedy back? At the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, Jermaine Clement and Taika Waititi’s vampire mock doc ‘What We Do in the Shadows’ was one of the strongest in…
Dame Kiri Returns to Covent Garden Stage
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has returned to Covent Garden after 17 years for performances of Donizetti’s comedy La Fille du Régiment in the role of the Duchess of Crackentorp. Te Kanawa celebrated her 70th birthday…
Brooklyn DIY Drummer on her Influences
New Zealand-born Fiona Campbell, a long-time participant in the Brooklyn DIY music scene, discusses her admiration for late-00s noise-pop New York band Vivian Girls, for whom Campbell drummed in 2010. Formerly of Auckland, Campbell left…
Cuttlebone Works on Display at Melbourne Flower and Garden Show
New Zealand artist Christian Gundesen will display his cuttlebone sculptures at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, which runs 26-30 March. Gundesen, who lives in Rye, 83km south of Melbourne, moved to the seaside…
Warner Bros Buys Rights to NZer’s Book with Bradley Cooper to Star
A crime drama based on an upcoming book by New Zealander Ben Sanders called American Blood, has been purchased by Warner Brothers and will star Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper who will also produce. At least…
There’s a New Sheriff in Town
New Zealand actor Martin Henderson, 39, stars as sheriff Harold Jensen in Sundance Channel’s new thriller The Red Road. Dark and dramatic, The Red Road is set in in the fictional town of Walpole, New…
Creation Is a Completely Divine Concept, Says Catton
Ahead of appearances at Perth Writers Festival on 22 February and Adelaide Writers’ Week on 1 March, the Guardian’s Vicky Frost met with Booker prize-winning author 28-year-old Eleanor Catton to talk about her next…
Springsteen Covers Royals at Mt Smart Stadium
According to Rolling Stone, Bruce Springsteen made the most surprising cover choice of his career when he played an acoustic rendition of teenage Grammy award-winner Lorde’s song Royals during his Auckland show at Mt…
Finn’s NY-Inspired Third Album a Whirlwind of Weirdness
This coming May, New Zealand singer-songwriter Liam Finn, 30, will release his third full-length album, The Nihilist, on which Finn plays 67 instruments. Vice magazine’s music channel Noisey premieres the new video…
New Book Describes Athens Before the Bubble Burst
In his book Athens – The Truth: Searching for Manos, Just Before the Bubble Burst, New Zealand author David Cade describes his time in the city during the summer of 2009 as startling reports…
Miami Concert a Fine Showcase for Young Conductor
The “clear beat and enthusiasm” of New Jersey Symphony’s assistant conductor New Zealand-born Gemma New, “charged up the Miami Symphony’s crackling brass and percussion sections”, at the orchestra’s “Valentine Fiesta” in February. “With a colourful…
International Stage for NZ Writing
Acclaimed literature almanac, the Griffith Review, has devoted an entire issue to New Zealand poetry, fiction, non-fiction, art and photography. Award-winning author of Mister Pip, Lloyd Jones, has been brought in as guest editor…
Debut Radio Single Heavy Seas Rolling out in UK
With a voice described as “Bowie meets Bono”, New Zealand-born Thom Cross will release his debut radio single Heavy Sea, mixed by Grammy Award-winning producer Guy Massey of Manic Street Preachers fame. London-based Cross talked…
Lorde & the Perfectly Formed Sentence
Ella Yellich-O’Connor stares at the reader from the pages of Vogue magazine looking wraithlike, almost like another famous alien fallen to earth. This Lorde looks quite unlike the girl from Devonport who improbably conquered…
Rose McIver Stars in Flowers in the Attic TV Sequel
Twenty-six-year-old Rose McIver has been confirmed to play the role of Cathy Dollanganger in Petals on the Wind, American cable network Lifetime’s upcoming sequel to its hit adaptation of Virginia Andrews’s Flowers in the…
Pioneering People Who Value Community Rebuild a Theatre
How the Court Theatre rose from the rubble of the 2011 Christchurch earthquake is described by its chief executive Philip Aldridge for the Guardian’s “Culture Professionals Network” series. “[After the earthquake on the morning of…
Auckland Illustrator Lands Space on the Wall next to Banksy
25 February 2014 – Auckland-based illustrator Henrietta Harris will exhibit alongside the world’s most famous street artist at the Robert Fontaine Gallery in Miami from 8 March. The exhibition, called Insiders:…
Impressive and Uncommonly Versatile NY Triple Bill
24 February 2014 – The opening of Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB) at The Joyce in New York “marked the final stop on a US tour that has covered a lot of ground –…
Lorde Scoops Best International Female Solo Artist at The Brit Awards 2014
Lorde has overcome the odds and won the best International Female Solo Artist prize at the Brit Awards 2014. Despite going into the show as a huge underdog, the 17 year old newcomer took the…
Cover Duties for Our Own Alternative Pop Voice
Lorde takes one of four covers for fashion magazine V’s music special as part of a feature on the “next wave of alternative pop voices,” starring alongside HAIM, Say Lou Lou, and BANKS. The 17-year-old…
Booker Judge Explains Catton’s Genius
Eleanor Catton’s Booker-winning The Luminaries is a novel in which almost everyone is obsessed with the acquisition of wealth, writes Robert Macfarlane in Intelligent Life, the sister publication to The Economist. But of all…
Exciting Things Afoot at the Royal New Zealand Ballet
Artistic director of the Royal New Zealand Ballet Wellington-based Ethan Stiefel is significantly raising the “well-respected” company’s profile. The former American Ballet Theater principal was about as famous as it is possible for a…
Neil Finn’s Latest Solo Album His Funkiest
“Neil Finn makes pop music, and good pop music at that. He can’t help it,” espouses the Sydney Morning Herald’s senior music writer Bernard Zuel, and he “makes the oddest and, to these ears,…
Devastating Fairytales Evoke Story of Painful Youth
Janet Frame’s The Mijo Tree, a previously unpublished novella first drafted in 1957, follows the pattern of her other stories, with their “anthropomorphism and their small, clear fairytale phrasing,” which gradually “reveal their powerful…
Fighting for Freedom in Post-Communist Poland
Acclaimed New Zealand war correspondent John Borrell thought he’d left the big battles behind when, aged in his 40s, he established with his Polish wife an idyllic lakeside resort outside of Gdansk. But post-Communist…
Super Bowl Advertising Hilarity Starring Sookie and P Diddy
Anna Paquin, 31, and True Blood co-star and real life husband Stephen Moyer starred in a “hilarious” Super Bowl commercial alongside P Diddy on 2 February “and it certainly created a buzz”, reported the…
Other Pop Riches Doing Us Proud in the US
While Lorde is New Zealand’s biggest success story at the moment, she’s far from all we have to offer in terms of pop riches. Billboard’s Andrew Unterberger looks at New Zealanders impressing stateside in…
Guided Tours Showcase Napier’s Fascinating Architecture
“Nobody was building town centres during the Depression, so Napier is rare,” says Robert McGregor, Independent journalist John Lee’s guide and the author of several books on the city. “South Beach and Napier are…
Detroit Connections Spark New Ladi6 Album
Christchurch-born neo-soul queen Ladi6, real name Karoline Tamati, 31, has been described as “New Zealand’s answer to Erykah Badu” in her home country and listening to latest album Automatic, it’s easy to hear why,…
Spanky Pays Tribute to His Firecracker Mother with New Alter-Ego
Cabaret star Spanky, aka Rhys Morgan, says the late Amy Winehouse and his straight-talking New Zealand mum were among the many muses for his latest show Dead Bitches, which he performs as part…
Shepherd’s Bush Gig a Trip down the Rabbit Hole
Eccentric Connan Mockasin may be, but it’s his wayward musicianship that has won over famous fans like Radiohead, Beck and rapper Tyler, according to the London Evening Standard, which reviews Mockasin’s London show at…
Metaphorical Moustache Twirling as Villain Otto Luger
“From fleeing dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to Oscar-lauded films like The Piano and historical dramas like The Tudors, Sam Neill has treated his acting life like a grand escapade,” Richard Whittaker writes for the…
Isolated Gisborne Gallery Has a Different Set of Rules
Two exhibitions by New Zealand-born artists based overseas are opening at PAULNACHE in Gisborne. Matthew Couper, who lives in Las Vegas and Matt Arbuckle, who has spent the last couple of years…
Christchurch Dedication Wins Rome Art Prize
Kaikoura artist Ruth Stirnimann’s Earth Grid 4, which was dedicated to Christchurch after the earthquakes, has beat 1050 other artists to win international art competition La Tua Arte Nel Sociale launched by Rome gallery,…
Hang Wire a Love Letter to Weird America
Auckland-born author Adam Christopher, 36, has “built a name for himself over the past couple years spinning fanciful yarns full of superheroes, shifts in time, and a refined pulp pop, starting with his New…
Jackson Hits His Personal Stride with Smaug
Peter Jackson explains how The Desolation of Smaug, the second film in his Hobbit trilogy, brought certain freedoms and how the “sole responsibility of this film foot on the…
New Zealanders’ Discovery Defended in London Review of Books
New Zealander Constant Mews’ academia-shaking discovery of the lost love letters of legendary lovers Heloise and Aberlard is being defended in the London Review of Books after a new book cast doubt on their…
Royal New Zealand Ballet Return to US after Two Decades with Giselle
For the first time in 21 years the Royal New Zealand Ballet is touring the United States, performing “a fresh production of the classic” Giselle, premiering in Los Angeles at The Music…
Last Meals Offer Glimpse into Minds of Condemned Men
Henry Hargreaves’ latest project is recreations of the last meals of various serial killers on death row. The Christchurch-born photographer has made a name for himself making and photographing such gastronomical fancies as edible…
TV Actor Antony Starr Proving a Fighting Force in Banshee’s Second Season
New Zealand actor Antony Starr is carving a name for himself in the American TV industry, with the second season of his show ‘Banshee’ premiering this month. In an interview with The Star Online, Starr,…
Finn to Release Third Studio Album The Nihilist
Liam Finn has announced the release of his first full-length studio album in three years, titled The Nihilist. The Melbourne-based singer-songwriter has also unveiled the album’s first single, Snug As F-ck. The track…
Road Trip Photographs Possess a Thoughtful Melancholy
“After spending several years abroad, photographer Harry Culy returned to his homeland of New Zealand and took a series of road trips exploring the world he had known while discovering it anew through the…
Season’s Greetings from the Sundance Film Festival
New Zealand actress Melanie Lynskey and Up in the Air award-winner Anna Kendrick star in Joe Swanberg’s latest low-budget feature, Happy Christmas, which made its premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival on in…
You Don’t Say No to a Director like Campion
The fact that Jane Campion’s drama Top of the Lake has been so well received only makes sense to American actress Holly Hunter, who played feminist seer GJ in the award-winning series. “It’s been energising…
Lorde Wins Two Grammys
Lorde looked stunned upon hearing her name being called as she won her first Grammy of the night for Best Pop Solo Performance at last night’s Grammy Awards, the first of two awards for…
Shrewdly Cast Star of Free Ride Conveys Breezy Believability
New Zealand actress Anna Paquin is “shrewdly cast” in Shana Betz’s feature debut, Free Ride. Set in 1977, Paquin plays Christina, a single mother escaping an abusive relationship and starting a new life in…
Mansfield Had Something to Say and Said It Uncommonly Well
A 1922 review of Katherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party and Other Stories is pulled “from the stacks” of a New Republic back issue. “It is necessary to read no more than two or three…
