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Katie Wolfe (born 1968) is an actor, film and stage director from New Zealand. She appeared in television series including Marlin Bay (1990s), Shortland Street (late 1990s), and Mercy Peak (2000 - 2001). Her screen directing work has won awards, including Redemption at the ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival and This Is Her at the Prague International Short Film Festival. Wolfe wrote and directed a stage play, The Haka Party Incident that was presented in 2023 in New Zealand.

Biography

Katie Wolfe, the daughter of Neil Wolfe and Raewyn Wolfe, was born in New Plymouth in 1968, she has three siblings. Wolfe is Māori and is affiliated with the Taranaki iwi Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama. After enrolling at Victoria University of Wellington in 1986, she graduated with a BA in English, and stayed in Wellington to study at Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Acting School, graduating in 1990.

Career

Acting

Wolfe's first professional acting job was at Dunedin's Fortune Theatre, followed by the role of presenter for several episodes of NHNZ's children's nature series Wild Track.

Her first television role, as Ginny Gannaway on the series Marlin Bay, was in 1992 began in 1992 and lasted three years. Her feature film debut came in the New Zealand film The Last Tattoo (1994), a murder mystery set in Wellington during World War II directed by John Reid and starring Rod Steiger and Tony Goldwyn along with a large cast of established and soon to be established local actors, including Tim Balme, Danielle Cormack, Kerry Fox, and Robyn Malcolm.

Directing and writing

Like other actors associated with Shortland Street, Wolfe directed episodes of that program. Her first two films, the short films This is Her (2008) and Redemption (2010), both premiered at Sundance, and then screened at other international festivals including Telluride (USA), the Berlinale (Germany), the Melbourne International Film Festival, the San Tropez Antipodes Film Festival (France) and the New York Film Festival. Her first feature-length film, titled Kawa (2010), is an adaptation of Witi Ihimaera's book, Nights in the Gardens of Spain.

Wolfe joined seven other Māori women to direct the omnibus film Waru (2017). Each woman contributed a 10-minute segment of events circling around the tangi of a boy named Waru. After its debut at the 2017 New Zealand International Film Festival, Waru screened at the Toronto Film Festival and ImagineNATIVE festivals.

Wolfe's work as a theatre director includes The Haka Party Incident, a verbatim play about race relations based on a confrontation that occurred between Māori activists and a group of engineering students doing a mock haka at the University of Auckland in 1979. Wolfe, also the author, presented an early version in 2017, leading to its being programmed by a number of festivals throughout New Zealand (Te Tairāwhiti Festival, Auckland Festival, Tauranga Arts Festival, RESET Festival in Taranaki, Nelson Arts Festival) that were affected by Covid 19 restrictions. It premiered in 2021 and toured New Zealand in 2023 presented at the Kia Mau Festival, Wellington; Sir Howard Morrison Centre, Rotorua; Taranaki Arts Festival, New Plymouth; Te Tairāwhiti Arts Festival, Gisborne; Tauranga Festival and the Court Theatre in Christchurch. Critic Nga-Atawhainga Hineāmore said of the play: "...having the actors performing the haka both as a farce and in its full and rightful glory proves to be a strongly emotive way of tracking the obvious social and cultural divide." It was produced as a film The Haka Party in 2024.

Filmography - screen credits

Film

Television

Other work

Theatre

Directing

Wolfe has directed a number of plays including:

• Luncheon (2014) by Aroha Awarau, at the Basement Theatre, Auckland. Starring Jennifer Ward-Lealand
• The Haka Party Incident (2017) written and directed by Katie Wolfe. Verbatim theatre, produced by Auckland Theatre Company.
• Anahera (2017) by Emma Kinane. Circa Theatre, Wellington.
• The Haka Party Incident (2020) (revision) written and directed by Katie Wolfe. Produced by Auckland Theatre Company.

Acting Roles

Awards and nominations

Personal life

Wolfe married fellow actor Tim Balme in 1994, and together they have two children. Wolfe also has a step-son.

References

1. Dann, Jennifer (25 September 2017). "Twelve questions: Why Katie Wolfe left Shortland Street - and what she's doing now". NZ Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Archived from the original on 17 November 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
2. ^ "NZ on Screen". NZ on Screen.com. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 4 April 2011.
3. "Katie Wolfe: Biography". NZ on Screen. 19 December 2021. Archived from the original on 5 April 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
4. "Other Short Film Highlights". NZ Film Newsletter. NZ Film Commission. December 2008. p. 10.
5. "Waru". NZOnScreen. Archived from the original on 3 March 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
6. "The Haka Party Incident ⋆ Te Tairawhiti Arts Festival 2021". Te Tairawhiti Arts Festival 2021. Archived from the original on 8 June 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
7. "The Haka Party Incident | 30 March - 10 April, ASB Waterfront Theatre". ASB Waterfront Theatre. Archived from the original on 17 May 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
8. "The Haka Party Incident". RESET 2021. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
9. "THE HAKA PARTY INCIDENT | By Katie Wolfe". Nelson Arts Festival. Archived from the original on 30 June 2022. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
10. "The Haka Party Incident - On Tour June 2023". Performing Arts Network of New Zealand. Archived from the original on 28 September 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
11. "THE HAKA PARTY INCIDENT". Theatreview. Archived from the original on 18 July 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
12. "Katie Wolfe: The Haka Party Incident". RNZ. 10 August 2024. Retrieved 13 August 2024.
13. "Aroha Awarau". Playmarket. Archived from the original on 17 January 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
14. "Interview: Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Katie Wolfe on the play Luncheon". Now To Love. 19 May 2014. Archived from the original on 1 March 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
15. "The Haka Party Incident". Auckland Theatre Company. Archived from the original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
16. Smythe, John (10 September 2017). "ANAHERA - Inescapable truths honoured with compelling integrity". www.theatreview.org.nz. Archived from the original on 29 October 2018. Retrieved 1 March 2020.
17. Zealand (www.bka.co.nz), Site designed and developed by bka interactive ltd, Auckland, New. "The Haka Party Incident". www.atc.co.nz. Archived from the original on 1 March 2020. Retrieved 1 March 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
18. "Hamptons International Film Fest winners announced". 27east.com. 13 October 2009. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 31 March 2017.
19. Virginia Winder (12 December 2003). "Katie Wolfe's Dramatic Life... So Far". Pukeariki.com. Archived from the original on 12 December 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2011.

External links

• Katie Wolfe at IMDb
• Katie Wolfe Website

• 1968 births
• Living people
• New Zealand film actresses
• New Zealand women film directors
• Toi Whakaari alumni
• Māori-language film directors
• New Zealand dramatists and playwrights
• New Zealand stage actors
• New Zealand theatre directors