Oscar Kightley | |
|---|---|
 Kightley in 2008 | |
| Born | Oscar Vai To'elau Kightley 14 September 1969 |
| Nationality | New Zealand, Samoan |
| Alma mater | Rutherford College |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, presenter, writer, director, comedian |
| Political party | Labour Party |
Oscar Vai To'elau Kightley MNZM (born 14 September 1969) is a Samoan-New Zealander actor, television presenter, writer, journalist, director, and comedian. He acted in and co-wrote the successful 2006 film Sione's Wedding .
Kightley was born in 1969 in Apia, Samoa, the youngest of eight children, and was raised in his father's village of Faleatiu. [1] He came to New Zealand after the death of his father, when he was 4 years old and was adopted by his aunt and uncle, who lived in West Auckland. He attended Rutherford College, where writing was his favourite subject.
After leaving school, Kightley was a cadet at the Auckland Star , and worked as a journalist for four years. [1] "I thought that was going to be me until I retired." [2] He moved to Christchurch in 1991 to be a presenter for the children's television show Life in the Fridge Exists (L.I.F.E), where he met Tanya and Mishelle Muagututi'a, Erolia Ifopo, and Simon Small. [1]
Small had written his first full-length play, Horizons, about the Samoan experience in New Zealand, and invited Kightley to perform in it in his first acting role, along with Muagututi'a and Ifopo. Horizons opened the Performing Arts Theatre on 19 October 1991 in a production directed by Christina Stachurski. The play was re-workshopped and recast (but still with Kightley) and in August–September it played at Galaxy Theatre in Auckland, Taki Rua Depot, and the Castle Theatre at the University of Otago before returning to Christchurch. [1]
The success of Horizons inspired Kightley to form Pacific Underground theatre company in Christchurch alongside Small, Muagututi'a, Ifopo, and Michael Hodgson, a mixture of people from palagi and Pacific Island identities. In just two months Kightley and Small (who wrote as Francis Serra) had written the play Fresh off the Boat. [2] The play was workshopped by Playmarket, and directed by Nathaniel Lees with David Fane as the lead. The play opened at the Rolleston Ave Theatre in Christchurch in November 1993, toured to the New Zealand Fringe Festival in Wellington in 1994, and also played for three weeks at Downstage in 1995. It later went to Auckland, Apia, and Brisbane. It won a Media Peace Award and was published in 2005. [1]
As well as Pacific Underground, Kightley co-founded the Island Players theatre company. He won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 1998 [3] and has worked as a performer and writer for a number of television shows including Skitz, Telly Laughs, The Panel, Sportzah, and TV3's rugby coverage. His plays include Dawn Raids, Island Girls, A Frigate Bird Sings (co-written with Dave Fane and Nathaniel Lees), and Niu Sila (co-written with Dave Armstrong). Dawn Raids was reissued in 2018 by Playmarket. [4] Kightley also co-wrote and took a lead role in the highly successful Sione’s Wedding movies. [5]
He was a breakfast announcer on Niu FM until January 2007. [6] He has also been on RNZ National/Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa National as a guest, as well as guest-hosting Kim Hill's Saturday Morning show during Summer 2007–2008. In 2006 he received a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand. [7] He is a member of the comedy group the Naked Samoans, who together wrote the animated television series bro'Town . [7]
In 2013, Kightley played the title character in the police drama Harry , which he also co-wrote. He directed Madeleine Sami's TV3 comedy Super City, and co-directed a US pilot of it with Taika Waititi. [8]
In 2019, Kightley led a panel for Auckland Council on why people should vote in local-body elections. [9] [10] At the 2022 local-body elections, Kightley was elected to the Henderson-Massey local board, representing the Labour Party. [9] [11]
In the 2009 New Year Honours, Kightley was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to television and the theatre. [12] In 2016, he was awarded the Senior Pacific Artist Award with Dave Fane at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifka Awards. [13]
In 2019, Kightley received the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency, "a unique opportunity for a New Zealand writer of Pacific heritage to work on a creative writing project exploring Pacific identify, culture, or history." [2] The significance of this award is the place it has in the development of contemporary Maori and Pacifica culture, and of Kightley's stature within the history of that development. The Residency, located at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, [2] was inaugurated by film director, writer, and educator Sima Urale in 2004; other film and theatre artists who have received the award include Victor Rodger (2006), Toa Fraser (2009), and Makerita Urale (2010). [14] The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is also where Merata Mita "developed [the] Academy for Creative Media’s indigenous filmmaking program. [15]
In October 2019, Kightley was presented with a Scroll of Honour from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand for his contribution to New Zealand entertainment.
In November 2020, Kightley was named one of the best dressed men in show business on David Hartnell's best-dressed list. [16]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Sione's Wedding | Albert | ||
| 2012 | Sione's 2: Unfinished Business | Albert | ||
| 2013 | Harry | Harry/Writer | ||
| 2016 | Hunt for the Wilderpeople | Andy | ||
| 2016 | Moana | Fisherman (voice) | ||
| 2021 | Dawn Raid | Director | ||
| 2022 | Duck Rockers | Director/Writer/Isaac | [17] | |
| 2023 | Next Goal Wins | Tavita |
bro'Town is a New Zealand adult animated comedy television series and sitcom that ran from 2004 to 2009. It starred David Fane, Mario Gaoa, Shimpal Lelisi and Oscar Kightley.
Nathaniel Lees is a New Zealand theatre actor and director and film actor of Samoan descent, best known for film roles in The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and for starring in Young Hercules as Chiron the centaur.
Sione's Wedding is a 2006 New Zealand comedic film directed by Chris Graham and written by James Griffin and Oscar Kightley, and produced by South Pacific Pictures.
The Naked Samoans is a New Zealand comedy group made up of Polynesian entertainers, most of whom are Samoan. The group performs social humour and satire that attracts a broad audience, especially among white New Zealanders, without sacrificing the group's Pacific Island identity. The group has gained success in both television and film projects as well as in theatre, which remains their primary base in entertainment. The members of this group are David Fane, Mario Gaoa, Shimpal Lelisi, Oscar Kightley, Robbie Magasiva and Iaheto Ah Hi.
Mario Gaoa is a New Zealand actor, writer and director, best known as a member of the Naked Samoans comedy group. He is of Samoan descent. As part of the group he has appeared in the film Sione's Wedding; provided the voices of Sione Tapili and God in the animated series Bro'Town, which he also co-writes; and acted in various Naked Samoans comedic theatre performances. He has also appeared in the film Nightmare Man and briefly in the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.
David Rodney Fane is a New Zealand actor of Samoan descent.
Iosefa Enari was a New Zealand opera singer who was born in Samoa. The Iosefa Enari Memorial Award, presented annually by Creative New Zealand, recognises Enari's pioneering contribution to Pacific Islands opera. Enari was the Artistic Director of Classical Polynesia, the first New Zealand opera combining traditional Samoan words and music with classical opera.
Karlo Estelle Mila is a New Zealand writer and poet of Tongan, Pālagi and Samoan descent. Her first collection, Dream Fish Floating, received the NZSA Jessie Mackay Award for Best First Book of Poetry in 2006 at the Montana New Zealand Book Awards. She has subsequently published two further poetry collections, A Well Written Body (2008) and Goddess Muscle (2020), the latter of which was longlisted for the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry.
Sima Urale is a New Zealand filmmaker. Her films explore social and political issues and have been screened worldwide. She is one of the few Polynesian film directors in the world with more than 15 years in the industry. Her accolades include the Silver Lion for Best Short Film at the Venice Film Festival for O Tamaiti (1996).
Victor John Rodger is a New Zealand journalist, actor and award-winning playwright of Samoan and Pākehā heritage. Rodger's play Sons won acclaim at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards (1998) and received the Best New Writer and Most Outstanding New New Zealand Play awards. In 2001, he won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Other plays include Ranterstantrum (2002) and My Name is Gary Cooper (2007), produced and staged by Auckland Theatre Company and starred a Samoan cast including Robbie Magasiva, Anapela Polataivao, Goretti Chadwick and Kiwi actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand.
Makerita Urale is a documentary director and playwright, and a leading figure in contemporary Polynesian theatre in New Zealand. She has produced landmark productions in the performing arts. She is the writer of the play Frangipani Perfume, the first Pacific play written by a woman for an all-female cast. Working in different art mediums, Urale also works in film and television. She is the director of the political documentary Children of the Revolution that won the Qantas Award (2008) for Best Māori Programme.
Daren (DK) Kamali is a Fijian-born New Zealand poet, writer, musician, and teacher and museum curator.
Mīria George is a New Zealand writer, producer and director of Māori and Cook Island descent. Best known for being the author of award-winning stage plays, George has also written radio, television and poetry, and was one of the film directors of the portmanteau film Vai. In November 2005, she won the Emerging Pacific Artist's Award at the Arts Pasifika Awards. Mīria George was the first Cook Islands artist to receive the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency at the University of Hawai'i.
Dave Armstrong is a New Zealand playwright, screenwriter, trumpet player and columnist for The Dominion Post. His work has featured on stage, radio and television. His television writer credits include Spin Doctors, Seven Periods with Mr Gormsby, Great War Stories, and script editor for bro'Town.
Courtney Sina Meredith is a poet, playwright, and short story author from New Zealand.
The Arts Pasifika Awards celebrate excellence in Pacific arts in New Zealand. The annual awards are administered by Creative New Zealand and are the only national awards for Pasifika artists across all artforms.
Goretti Chadwick is a Samoan-New Zealand stage and television actress, writer, director and tutor.
Pacific Underground is a New Zealand performing arts collective, founded in 1993 in Christchurch, New Zealand, to produce contemporary performing art that reflects the group's Pacific Island heritage. In 2016 they received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Pacific Music Awards. They are the longest running Pacific contemporary performing arts organisation in New Zealand.
Justine Simei-Barton is a Samoan theatre and film director and producer in New Zealand.
Amanaki Lelei Prescott-Faletau is an actor, writer, dancer, choreographer, producer and director of Tongan descent, living in New Zealand. As a playwright, she became the first fakaleitī to have her work published in New Zealand with Inky Pinky Ponky. This play was awarded Best Teenage Script (2015) by New Zealand Playmarket. As an actor, she was awarded best performance at the 2015 Auckland Fringe Festival for Victor Rodger's Girl on the Corner. Her acting credits include The Breaker Upperers (2018), SIS (2020), The Panthers (2021), The Pact (2021) and Sui Generis (2022), in which she is also a writer for the TV series. Faletau competed as a dancer in the World Hip Hop Dance Championships in 2011 and has been a judge at the National Hip Hop Championships in New Zealand over several years.
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