Rachel Alison Mary 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 appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to television, in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours. [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 |
Roger Lindsey Donaldson is an Australian and New Zealand film director, screenwriter, and producer. His 1977 debut film, Sleeping Dogs, is considered landmark work of New Zealand cinema, as one of the country’s first films to attract large-scale critical and commercial success. He has subsequently directed 17 feature films, working in Hollywood and the United Kingdom, as well as his native country.
The Topp Twins are the folk singing and activist sister comedy duo of New Zealand entertainers Jools and Lynda Topp. They are known for their country music influenced style, live shows and television performances. They often perform as characters, the most notable being the roles Ken & Ken, and Camp Mother & Camp Leader.
Sir Stephen Robert Tindall is the founder of New Zealand retailer The Warehouse, The Warehouse Group, and the Tindall Foundation.
Robyn Jane Malcolm is a New Zealand actress, who first gained recognition for her role as nurse Ellen Crozier on the soap opera Shortland Street. She is best known for playing Cheryl West, matriarch to a sometimes criminal working-class family, in the television series Outrageous Fortune. She has also worked in Australia, including roles in the TV series Rake and Upper Middle Bogan. She plays the lead role in the six-part 2023 NZ drama After the Party.
Larry George Parr, a New Zealand film and television producer, writer, and director, has been involved in the New Zealand film industry since the 1970s.
Emily Justine Perkins is a New Zealand novelist, short story writer, playwright and university lecturer. Over the course of her career Perkins has written five novels, one collection of short stories and two plays. She has won a number of notable literary awards, including twice winning the top award for fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards. In 2011 she received an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award.
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.
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.
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.
Riccardo Michele Salizzo is a New Zealand journalist, television presenter and producer. He is best known for producing and presenting long-running sports chat show SportsCafe, as well as executive producing and occasionally presenting sports current events show The Crowd Goes Wild.
Chelsea Jane Winstanley is a New Zealand film producer. She produces short films and documentaries which celebrate Indigenous peoples. She also produced the films What We Do in the Shadows and Jojo Rabbit.
Victoria Ursula Spackman is a New Zealand creative director and business executive.
Ainsley Amohaere Gardiner is a film producer from New Zealand.
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.
Dame Hinewehi Mohi is a New Zealand musician and producer, best known for her double-platinum album Oceania (1999) and its lead single "Kotahitanga (Union)", performing the New Zealand National Anthem in Māori during the 1999 Rugby World Cup, and as a producer for the 2019 Māori language compilation album Waiata / Anthems.
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.
Susan Accushla Wilson is a New Zealand director and actor. Wilson was one of the founders of Wellington's Circa Theatre and the Circa Council in 1976 and has had a long career at the theatre as a stage actor and director.
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.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
  | This biographical article related to New Zealand television is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
