Rachel Lang MNZM is a New Zealand television screenwriter, executive producer and actor. [1] She co-created the television series Outrageous Fortune, Go Girls, This Is Not My Life, Mercy Peak, Nothing Trivial, The Blue Rose , and Filthy Rich . She was awarded an MNZM in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to television. [2] [3] [4]
Lang graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1982 with a Diploma in Acting. [5] Lang's first work in script writing was as a script editor at TVNZ in the 1980s. She worked on episodes of Shark in the Park , Open House and movie Mark II.
From 1992 until 2000 she worked on Shortland Street, starting as a story liner then moving on to roles as story editor and executive producer. She was the first New Zealander employed as story editor on the show, with previous story editors employed from Australia.
In 1999 she created Jackson's Wharf , one of her first collaborations with Gavin Strawhan. They would go on to work together on Mercy Peak and Maddigan's Quest .
Title | Year | Credited as | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Writer | |||
13 Suspects | 2018 | Yes | Short film |
Title | Year | Credited as | Network | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Creator | Writer | Executive producer | ||||
Open House | 1986–87 | No | No | No | Television One | Story editor |
Gloss | 1987 | No | No | No | Network Two | Script editor |
Shark in the Park | 1989–91 | No | No | No | Television One | Story editor Script editor |
Shortland Street | 1992 | No | No | No | Channel 2 | Storyliner |
City Life | 1998 | No | Yes (1) | Yes | TV2 | |
Lawless | 1999 | Devised | No | No | TV2 | Television film Script editor |
Jackson's Wharf | 1999–2001 | Yes | Yes (8) | Yes | TV2 | Executive producer (season 2) |
Lawless: Dead Evidence | 2000 | Yes | No | No | TV2 | Television film |
Lawless: Beyond Justice | 2001 | Yes | No | No | TV2 | Television film Script editor |
Mercy Peak | 2001–04 | Yes | Yes (8) | Yes | TV One | |
Outrageous Fortune | 2005–10 | Yes | Yes (35) | Yes | TV3 | Script editor (series 3–6) |
Maddigan's Quest | 2006 | Developer | Yes (8) | No | TV3 | Script editor |
Honest | 2008 | Yes | No | No | ITV | |
Go Girls | 2009–13 | Yes | Yes (22) | Yes | TV2 | |
This Is Not My Life | 2010 | Yes | Yes (4) | Yes | TV One | |
The Almighty Johnsons | 2011–12 | Yes | Yes (2) | Yes | TV3 | Executive producer (series 1–2: 22 episodes) |
Nothing Trivial | 2011–14 | Yes | Yes (20) | Yes | TV One | |
The Blue Rose | 2013 | Yes | Yes (7) | Yes | TV3 | |
Step Dave | 2014 | No | Yes (3) | No | TV2 | |
When We Go to War | 2015 | No | Yes (4) | No | TV One | |
Westside | 2015–20 | Yes | Yes (4) | No | Three | |
Filthy Rich | 2016–17 | Yes | Yes (16) | Yes | TVNZ 2 | |
Hyde & Seek | 2016 | Yes | Yes (5) | No | Nine Network | |
Dirty Laundry | 2017 | Yes | No | Yes | TVNZ 1 | |
Bad Mothers | 2019 | Yes | Yes (5) | Yes | Nine Network |
Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | New Zealand Film and Television Awards | Best Script | Shortland Street | Nominated |
2005 | Qantas Television Awards | Best Script - Non-Factual Programme or Series | Outrageous Fortune , "The Cause of this Defect" | Won |
2006 | Outrageous Fortune | Nominated | ||
2007 | Nominated | |||
2008 | Best Script, Drama/Comedy Programme | Won | ||
2009 | Won | |||
2010 | Go Girls | Nominated | ||
2006 | Air New Zealand Screen Awards | Best Script - Drama Series or Serial | Outrageous Fortune | Nominated |
2007 | Best Script, Drama - Television | Outrageous Fortune, episode 16 | Nominated | |
Maddigan's Quest, episode 5 | Nominated | |||
2012 | Monte Carlo TV Festival | Outstanding International Producer - Drama Series | Nothing Trivial | Nominated |
Peter Paul Posa was a New Zealand guitarist most famous for his instrumental "The White Rabbit", which was released in 1963. The song is a guitar instrumental that sold 100,000 copies.
Robyn Jane Malcolm is a New Zealand actress, who first gained recognition for her role as nurse Ellen Crozier on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street.
Emily Justine Perkins is a New Zealand author.
Alun Robert Bollinger is a New Zealand cinematographer, who has worked on several Peter Jackson films, and many other films in New Zealand. He has also been a Director of Photography, including the second unit for Peter Jackson's trilogy The Lord of the Rings. He started as a trainee cine-camera operator for television with the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation in 1966.
Brian Paul Ellis is a New Zealand record producer, manager, and radio host. He is most known to audiences for being the former judge of New Zealand Idol and a former judge of the reality series New Zealand's Got Talent.
Mercy Peak was a New Zealand television series that ran for three seasons on local network TV One, between 2001 and 2004. The series rated well in New Zealand and won multiple awards for its cast. Though an ensemble show, Mercy Peak centres on a doctor who leaves the city to work at a hospital in the small town of Bassett. She works alongside stuffy but caring doctor William Kingsley. The series was produced by Auckland company South Pacific Pictures; a number of those who worked on the show would have a big hand in South Pacific Pictures hit Outrageous Fortune, including co-creator Rachel Lang, directors Mark Beesley and Simon Bennett, and producer John Laing.
Tere Veronica Rapley, generally known as Teremoana Rapley, is a New Zealand musician, television presenter and television producer, best known for her work in the 1990s with Upper Hutt Posse and Moana and the Moahunters.
Rachel Jessica Te Ao Maarama House is a New Zealand actress and director. She 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.
Fiona Samuel is a New Zealand writer, actor and director who was born in Scotland. Samuel's award-winning career spans theatre, film, radio and television. She graduated from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 1980 with a Diploma in Acting.
Tracey Tania Houpapa, commonly known as Traci Houpapa, is a company director and business advisor. She is a New Zealand Māori.
Ainsley Amohaere Gardiner is a film producer from New Zealand.
Hinemoa Elder is a New Zealand youth forensic psychiatrist and former television presenter. She is a professor in indigenous research at Te Whare Wānanga o Awanuiārangi, a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and sits on the Māori Advisory Committee of the Centre for Brain Research.
Dame Julie Claire Molloy Christie is a New Zealand businesswoman and television producer. She is the founder and former CEO of international television company Touchdown Productions, acquired by Dutch media company Eyeworks in 2006, and then later sold to Warner Bros.
Michael Earl Parmenter is a New Zealand choreographer, teacher and dancer of contemporary dance.
Shona Margaret McCullagh is a New Zealand choreographer, dancer, filmmaker and artistic director. McCullagh was the founding director of the New Zealand Dance Company and was appointed artistic director of the Auckland Festival in 2019.
Gillian Brooker Greer, also known as Gillian Boddy, is a New Zealand teacher, a literary scholar specialising in the works of Katherine Mansfield, a heath advocate, an advisor to the New Zealand Government and has been an administrator of numerous non profit organisations. She was the chief executive of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) from 2017 to 2018 and an assistant vice-chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington.
Peter John Hayden is a New Zealand actor, and television series writer, producer and presenter. Hayden is known to New Zealand audiences as the writer and narrator of nature documentaries series including Wild South and Journeys Across Latitude 45.
Elizabeth Anne Hakaraia is a New Zealand film producer and director.
Ella Yvette Henry is a New Zealand Māori academic, affiliated with Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa, Ngāti Kuri, and Te Rārawa iwi. In June 2022 she was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for services to Māori, education and media. As of 2022 she is a full professor in the business school at Auckland University of Technology, specialising in Māori media.
Caterina Maria De Nave was a New Zealand television and film producer, director, and media executive. She was the first woman to head a department at Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and one of the creators of New Zealand's longest-running soap, Shortland Street.