Meet the Feebles is a 1989 New Zealand puppet musical black comedy film directed by Peter Jackson, and written by Jackson, Fran Walsh, Stephen Sinclair and Danny Mulheron. It features Jim Henson-esque puppets in a perverse comic satire. Like Henson's Muppets, the Feebles are animal-figured puppets who are members of a stage troupe. However, whereas the Muppets characterize positivity, naïve folly, and innocence, the Feebles largely present negativity, vice, and other misanthropic characteristics. It is the first Jackson film that was co-written by his future partner Fran Walsh, who has gone on to act as co-writer for all his subsequent films.
Dame Frances Rosemary Walsh is a New Zealand screenwriter and film producer.
Alex Dimitriades is an Australian television, film and stage actor of Greek descent. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Nick Polides in the 1993 romantic comedy film The Heartbreak Kid and as Nick Poulos in the 1994 television teen drama spin-off Heartbreak High. He won critical acclaim for his role as Ari, a troubled second generation Greek Australian in Head On (1998). He won the Film Critics Circle of Australia award for Best Actor for the role and was nominated nominated for the AFI Award for Best Actor. In 2012, he won the AACTA Award for Best Lead Actor for his role in The Slap.
Fane Michael Flaws was a New Zealand musician, songwriter, director and artist.
Tony Backhouse is a singer, musician and composer from New Zealand and is a key player in the Australasian a cappella movement. He played in New Zealand bands such as the Crocodiles, and formed Australian a cappella groups, the Elevators, the Cafe of the Gate of Salvation, the Honeybees and the Heavenly Lights. In NZ, he formed the Napier Gospel Choir. Currently he lives in Sydney and works as a singer, composer, author and workshop leader, in the areas of vocal arranging and gospel music. He composes and arranges mainly for a cappella choirs, always with an ear to vernacular traditions – contemporary funk, African choirs, gospel – and to anything polyphonic. Works that typify his style are Jubilation and (I've Been Given) Two Wing as sung by the Café of the Gate of Salvation.
Arthur Baysting was a New Zealand writer, producer and children's advocate. He lived in Auckland with his partner, artist Jean Clarkson. They have two grown children.
Paul Joseph Mercurio is an Australian actor, choreographer, dancer, TV presenter and politician. Mercurio is best known for his lead role in the 1992 film Strictly Ballroom and his role as a judge on TV series Dancing with the Stars.
New Zealand humour bears some similarities to the body of humour of many other English-speaking countries. There are, however, several regional differences.
Ramon Rivero is an animation director, digital puppeteer and computer animator best known for his work on the 2001 film The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
Stuart Forbes Devenie is a New Zealand actor and theatre director, whose career spans three decades on stage and screen. He has performed in theatre productions nationally and internationally. In the 1980s, he was the artistic director of Centrepoint Theatre in Palmerston North and has been a senior educator at Toi Whakaari New Zealand Drama School. In 2000, he founded Playfair Ltd theatre company.
Bret Peter Tarrant McKenzie is a New Zealand musician, comedian, music supervisor, and actor. He is best known as one half of musical comedy duo Flight of the Conchords along with Jemaine Clement. In the 2000s, the duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an oft-lauded American television series, which aired for two seasons on HBO. Active since 1998, the duo released their most recent comedy special, Live in London, in 2018.
Mark Selwyn Hadlow is a New Zealand actor and comedian, perhaps best known internationally for playing the roles of Harry in King Kong and Dori, a dwarf, in The Hobbit series.
Mark Wright is a New Zealand actor, comedic entertainer, writer, and raconteur. He is a Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School graduate. He is an international Theatresports champion, has appeared for every professional theatre company in New Zealand, and toured extensively throughout Australasia. Notably: The Rocky Horror Show, Bouncers, A Way Of Life, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has featured in some 40 different television series/programmes/specials and has won two New Zealand Film & Television awards – both for best performance.
Peter Mochrie is an Australian actor whose career spans over forty five years in the industry, primarily featuring in television serial dramas such as The Restless Years, Water Rats and Janet King. He has also worked in New Zealand, where he spent six years as Dr. Callum McKay in the soap opera Shortland Street.
Danny Mulheron is a New Zealand actor, writer, and director who has worked in theatre, television and film.
Sir Peter Robert Jackson is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001–2003) and the Hobbit trilogy (2012–2014), both of which are adapted from the novels of the same name by J. R. R. Tolkien. Other notable films include the critically lauded drama Heavenly Creatures (1994), the horror comedy The Frighteners (1996), the epic monster remake film King Kong (2005), the World War I documentary film They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and the documentary The Beatles: Get Back (2021). He is the fourth-highest-grossing film director of all-time, his films having made over $6.5 billion worldwide.
Paul McLaughlin is a New Zealand actor who won the Cloud 9 award for Actor of the Year in 2004. He works out of Wellington, New Zealand, where he lives with his wife—singer, foley-artist and actress, Carrie McLaughlin.
Peter Salmon is a New Zealand film and television screenwriter and director. He has directed many TV series in both New Zealand and Australia, as well as several short films. In 2023 he directed the New Zealand drama series After the Party.
Brian Sergent is an actor born and based in Wellington, New Zealand.
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.
