 |
George Henare | |
|---|---|
 Henare in 2010 | |
| Born | George Winiata Henare 11 September 1945 Gisborne, New Zealand |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1965 – present |
George Winiata Henare CNZM OBE (born 11 September 1945) is a New Zealand actor with a career spanning over 50 years.
Born in Gisborne on 11 September 1945, the third youngest in a family of ten children, [1] Henare affiliates to the Māori tribes of Ngati Porou and Ngati Hine. He lived on a farm until the age of 12 on the East Coast of New Zealand's North Island.
Henare has a distinguished career as an actor in New Zealand with 50 years on stage and screen. Henare began his acting career after a stint as a postman and a trainee teacher. [2] He has played lead roles in film, television, opera and theatre as well as radio and voice work. An early success was landing a role in a New Zealand Opera production of Porgy and Bess in 1965. He later toured Australia in Jesus Christ Superstar and Phantom of the Opera .
Henare played the role of social worker Bennett in the classic New Zealand movie Once Were Warriors . Other films include Crooked Earth , Rapa Nui produced by Kevin Costner, The Silent One , The Legend of Johnny Lingo and Kawa (aka Nights in the Gardens of Spain ). Henare also played a lead role in the NZ short film Mananui (1995) alongside actor Cliff Curtis. [3]
Henare has performed in numerous television dramas in New Zealand including The Park Terrace Murder (1976), the historical series Greenstone and Mercy Peak . He also acted in the award-winning docu-drama Nga Tohu: Signatures which explored political and social issues around the Treaty of Waitangi. Other television roles included appearances in Xena: Warrior Princess , Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Street Legal . [4]
Since March 2011, he has had a recurring guest role as Henare Ngatai, father of Roimata in the long-running soap opera Shortland Street .
On stage, Henare has played a variety of roles from classical Shakespeare, musicals, operas to contemporary New Zealand theatre. In 2006, he won the actor of the year awardat the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for his performance in the role of Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at Circa Theatre, Wellington. [5]
In 2014 Henare became patron of the Newmarket Stage Company, a professional company based in Newmarket, Auckland. To help launch the company Henare played the lead in their first two productions of Educating Rita by Willy Russell and the New Zealand premiere of Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher.
In the 1988 New Year Honours, Henare was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the performing arts. [6] In 2008, he received a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand and was also honoured with the Te Waka Toi Award, Creative New Zealand for outstanding contribution to Māori theatre. [7] He became a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the theatre in the 2010 New Year Honours. [8]
Barry Ronald Barclay, MNZM was a New Zealand filmmaker and writer of Māori and Pākehā (European) descent.
Merata Mita was a New Zealand filmmaker, producer, and writer, and a key figure in the growth of the Māori screen industry.
Briar Grace-Smith is a screenwriter, director, actor, and short story writer from New Zealand. She has worked as an actor and writer with the Maori theatre cooperative Te Ohu Whakaari and Maori theatre company He Ara Hou. Early plays Don't Call Me Bro and Flat Out Brown, were first performed at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington in 1996. Waitapu, a play written by Grace-Smith, was devised by He Ara Hou and performed by the group on the Native Earth Performing Arts tour in Canada in 1996.
Rangimoana Taylor is an actor, theatre director, storyteller from New Zealand with more than 35 years in the industry. He has performed nationally and internationally and was the lead in the feature film Hook Line and Sinker (2011). He was an intrinsic part of three Māori theatre companies, Te Ohu Whakaari and Taki Rua in Wellington and Kilimogo Productions in Dunedin.
Sir Hector Busby, also known as Heke-nuku-mai-nga-iwi Puhipi and Hec Busby, was a New Zealand Māori navigator and traditional waka builder. He was recognised as a leading figure in the revival of traditional Polynesian navigation and ocean voyaging using wayfinding techniques.
Diggeress Rangituatahi Te Kanawa was a New Zealand Māori tohunga raranga of Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Kinohaku descent. At the time of her death she was regarded as New Zealand's most renowned weaver.
Mananui Te Heuheu Tūkino II was a New Zealand Māori tribal leader of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi.
Rachel Jessica Te Ao Maarama House is a New Zealand actress and director. She is best known for her roles in the films of Taika Waititi. and has received numerous accolades including an Arts Laureate, NZ Order of Merit, 'Mana Wahine' from WIFT NZ and Te Waipuna a Rangi for her contributions as an actor and director.
Merimeri Penfold was a New Zealand Māori educator. She is thought to have been the first Māori woman to teach Māori language at a New Zealand university.
Pakaariki "Paki" Harrison was a New Zealand master carver from Ngāti Porou. He is regarded as one of New Zealand's greatest carvers.
Hohi Ngapera Te Moana Keri Kaa was a New Zealand writer, educator, and advocate for the Māori language. She was of Ngāti Porou and Ngāti Kahungunu descent.
Robyn Rangihuia Bargh is a publisher and a director, council or board member of many organisations in the book industry and other arts-related organisations in New Zealand. Her work has been recognised with a number of prestigious awards including the Women in Publishing New Venture Award (1994), the Te Waka Toi Te Tohu Toi Kē Award (2006) and the Book Industry Lifetime Achievement Award (2018), and she was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2012 New Year Honours.
Matekino Lawless is a New Zealand master weaver from Ngāti Maniapoto and Ngāti Whawhakia iwi. Her work is held at marae, in private collections, in the collections of New Zealand and international museums, and at the Headquarters of the United Nations.
Piri John Ngarangikaunuhia Sciascia was a New Zealand Māori leader, kapa haka exponent, and university administrator. From 2016 until his death, he served as kaumātua and advisor to the governor-general and government of New Zealand.
Fred Graham is a New Zealand artist and educator recognised as a pioneer in the contemporary Māori art movement. In 2018 was the recipient of an Icon Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand, limited to 20 living art-makers.
Raymond Henry "Sandy" Adsett is a New Zealand visual artist and educator. He is acknowledged for championing the art of kōwhaiwhai painting, creating a context for the artform within the development of contemporary Māori art.
Taiaroa Royal is a New Zealand dancer and choreographer. Royal co-founded the contemporary Māori dance company Okareka with Taane Mete. As a dancer he has performed with New Zealand companies the Royal New Zealand Ballet, Douglas Wright Dance Company, Atamiria and Black Grace. He has choregraphed contemporary dance and also music videos including for Evermore and Ardijah, and for the World of Wearable Art (WOW) in Wellington. He is a 2023 recipient of an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award.
Helen Pearse-Otene is a New Zealand playwright, actor and author.
Toi-te-huatahi, also known as Toi and Toi-kai-rākau, is a legendary Māori tupuna (ancestor) of many Māori iwi (tribes) from the Bay of Plenty area, including Ngāti Awa, Ngāi Te Rangi and Ngāi Tūhoe. The Bay of Plenty's name in te reo Māori, Te Moana-a-Toi, references Toi-te-huatahi.
Selwyn Frederick Muru, also known as Herewini Murupaenga, was a New Zealand artist. Of Māori descent, his life's work included painting, sculpture, journalism, broadcasting, directing, acting, set design, theatre, poetry, and whaikōrero. Muru was awarded the Te Tohu Aroha mō Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu | Exemplary/Supreme Award in 1990 at the Creative New Zealand Te Waka Awards.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
