I was born and raised in Aotearoa New Zealand, no Ngāti Manu, ō te Whare Tapu ō Ngā Puhi, ahau.

My journey in film and television began back home, first through acting in TV commercials and working as an extra on productions including The Lord of the Rings. Those early moments on set offered an initial glimpse into the worlds that film can open up, and sparked a quiet curiosty about how those worlds are shaped. 

That curiosity eventually crystallised into studying at Te Herenga Waka / Victoria University of Wellington, where I completed a degree in Film and Māori Studies. There, I became focused on the intersection between storytelling and Aotearoa’s evolving sense of identity, and in how film can hold and transmit that connection more so than any other medium.

After graduating, I had the opportunity to work for the New Zealand International Film Festival, and in the Studio Set Department on The Hobbit trilogy – an immersive experience that revealed the scale, rhythm, and collective effort behind large-scale filmmaking. Looking back, it was here that my interest in producing truly took shape: a desire to be the connective thread, helping ideas move fluidly between people, departments, and stages of the process.