Renee Liang – Producer and Writer
Renee, a second-generation Chinese New Zealander, is a poet, playwright, paediatrician, medical researcher and fiction writer. She is based in Wellington, New Zealand. Her parents emigrated to NZ from Hong Kong in the 1970s. She is married to a Croatian New Zealander and has two young children.
Renee is a multidisciplinary artist, having written in many genres including short and long fiction, poetry, theatre, non fiction, blogging and arts journalism. She has also collaborated on visual arts works, film and music, produced and directed theatre works, worked as a dramaturge and producer, taught creative writing and organized community-based arts initiatives.
Renee has written, produced and nationally toured four plays: Lantern(2008), The Bone Feeder(2010), The First Asian AB(2012) and Under The Same Moon (2015). The Two Farting Sisters, a children’s play in collaboration with devising theatre company Petit Workshop, also toured in 2015. Bubblelands and The Quiet Room will also premiere in 2015.
Renee also works around NZ and Australia as a paediatrician (currently based at Hutt Hospital), and is part of the core research group for Growing Up In NZ, a major new longitudinal study of NZ children.
Website:www.chinglish-renee.blogspot.com; contact [email protected]
Joselyn Khor - Co-producer
Joselyn Khor found creative strength in directing and marketing writing and presenting her first musical, VIP: Vanity Isn’t Permanent to an audience of over 700 people. This lead to new ventures as she progressed in the role of director/producer for web series, The Ghost.
Spearheading ventures for her production company A+ Productions, Khor also produced the award-winning short film, Butterfly, which garnered attention as an official selection in festivals such as the Jumping Frames International Dance Video Festival.
Her efforts also gained traction within the creative arts community as she rallied artists ranging from filmmakers, graphic designers, painters and performers together for the 2014 creative arts exhibition, ARENA, which attracted over 150 attendees.
She is now producing a local drama/comedy fantast series, AFK, which will premiere on SKY TV's The Zone in October.
Benjamin Teh - actor
Born in 1985, Benjamin spent his childhood in England, before returning to his birthplace of Singapore until the age of sixteen, when he moved to New Zealand. He studied Film and Drama at the University of Auckland, and finished his education with a Masters in Screenwriting.
During university, Benjamin’s interests expanded from only directing, to acting and writing as well. His voracious appetite for the performing arts allowed him to constantly be involved in UoA’s drama club, Stage 2 Productions, and UoA’s film club, the Film Production Group.
Benjamin is always involved in several projects at the same time, having solidified a reputation for being a jack-of-all-trades and wearing the different caps of actor, writer and director at any given time.
He has written and directed several short plays and short films, and is branching out into bigger and better projects. He has previously collaborated with Renee Liang, acting in her plays The Bone Feeder and First Asian A** B****. He has also collaborated with Roseanne Liang, being featured in screen projects My Wedding and Other Secrets and Flat 3. He is currently working on an original content series called Potential, and a play called Let’s Save The Universe!
Benjamin won an International Best Short Film at the 2011 Urban Mediamakers Film Festival in Duluth, Georgia for his Honours thesis film, Just Pretending. He was also part of the 48Hrs writing team that won Best Script for their film Finger Bang in 2012. And holds the sole writing credit for the 48Hrs team that won Audience Favourite award, and was nominated for a New Rising Talent award, for their film Sleepless in Seatoun. Benjamin has appeared on stage for The 39 Steps, which won the 2013 ACTT Award for Comedy, and acted for TV mini-series Passion In Paradise, which was recently awarded a Silver Medal at the New York Festivals International Film & Television Awards.
Hweiling Ow - actor
Hweiling Ow, an actor and producer, has been a regular on stage, screen and online for many years. In 2015 she did Renee’s solo show, Under The Same Moon, performing to packed houses in Wellington and Auckland. This play will tour NZ as part of Arts On Tour’s 2016 menu. In 2014 she was cast in Carl Nixon’s Two Fish ‘n’ a Scoop at the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin, enjoying rave reviews. It concluded with a tour round the Central and South of Otago, to full houses and standing ovations. Hweiling later played the same role in Centrepoint Theatre’s production of the play. She was previously involved in the ensemble cast of The Secret of Dongting Lake that was held at that Auckland Concert Chambers in 2010.
Hweiling has also had a guest role on Shortland Street as Angkasa, Scotty's ex-lover; the mandarin teacher in My Weddings and Other Secrets, a real estate agent in Agent Anna, a recurring role on Flat3 webseries; and the Production Assistant in The Jaquie Brown Diaries.
Hweiling has been part of the 48 hours film festival competition, as a producer and actor, with some of the short films making it to the Auckland and National finals, winning best actress in 2014. Hweiling is originally from Malaysia and speaks Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay. [email protected]
Amanda Leo – Director
Amanda Grace Leo is a Kiwi Singaporean who has spent her life almost equally between New Zealand and Singapore/ Amanda is a co-founder of Female Company (www.femalecompany.co.nz), a new theatre company which focuses on strong roles for women. She is currently doing her Honours in Drama at the University of Auckland.
Amanda's recent roles include Tituba in StageTwo's 2012 The Crucible, Productions, Officer Barrel in Manukau Performing Art's 2012 Urinetown and Dr. Livingstone in Female Company's debut show Agnes Of God. In 2013, she was one of the two solo actresses in Theatre Of Love's Enigma Box for the Auckland Fringe Festival and went on to co-direct and co-write Auckland Music Theatre's Interns Wanted 2013 show InTransit. In 2014, Amanda won Best Female Performer from Jun Bin Lee's KTV Heaven at Short+Sweet Song and performed in Pretty Asian Theatre's award-winning Call Of The Sparrows the week before for Short+Sweet Theatre. Amanda's latest work was the highly-praised developmental season of A House Is Not A Home; A Cabaret at Garnet Station's Tiny Theatre as co-creator, co-producer and performer in association with Boni Te Rongopai Tukiwaho. She has always been interested in opening dialogue about cross-cultural issues, especially those pertinent to Aotearoa.
Sam Mence – Lighting design
Sam runs Creative Ambience Stage Technologies. With 6 years lighting and sound design experience, Sam specialises in multitrack recording and band audio production. His passion is stage lighting for theatre and musical events (past shows include Summer Shakespeare, Macbeth and The Vagina Monologues.)
Sarah Burren – Costume design and set elements
Sarah has been in creative industries for over 30 years. She has worked extensively in New Zealand, and lived in London and Toronto for 15 years during the 80s and 90s. She has designed and constructed costumes for TVCs, theatre and worked for BBC Television after graduating from the London College of Fashion 1983.
She has produced and worked on multiple theatre shows as set and costume designer, as well as building creatures and delivering concepts for live events, television and film.
Website www.journeytothedeep.com
Julie Zhu - photography, design and production assistance
Julie moved to NZ when she was four years old and has loved growing up here amongst the smorgasbord of diversity that Aotearoa and Auckland in particular is known for.
She is currently working towards her Honours in Screen Production at the University of Auckland. In her spare time she operates a photography business (check out Julie Zhu Photography on Facebook!), gets involved with some political things here and there, and is fiercely passionate about issues of social justice.
She has appeared in two productions at her local community theatre, Howick Little Theatre, including Two Fish 'n' a Scoop in 2014, as well as acted as stage manager and production co-ordinator for several plays there. She also sits on the HLT Committee sharing the marketing/comms portfolio.
Renee, a second-generation Chinese New Zealander, is a poet, playwright, paediatrician, medical researcher and fiction writer. She is based in Wellington, New Zealand. Her parents emigrated to NZ from Hong Kong in the 1970s. She is married to a Croatian New Zealander and has two young children.
Renee is a multidisciplinary artist, having written in many genres including short and long fiction, poetry, theatre, non fiction, blogging and arts journalism. She has also collaborated on visual arts works, film and music, produced and directed theatre works, worked as a dramaturge and producer, taught creative writing and organized community-based arts initiatives.
Renee has written, produced and nationally toured four plays: Lantern(2008), The Bone Feeder(2010), The First Asian AB(2012) and Under The Same Moon (2015). The Two Farting Sisters, a children’s play in collaboration with devising theatre company Petit Workshop, also toured in 2015. Bubblelands and The Quiet Room will also premiere in 2015.
Renee also works around NZ and Australia as a paediatrician (currently based at Hutt Hospital), and is part of the core research group for Growing Up In NZ, a major new longitudinal study of NZ children.
Website:www.chinglish-renee.blogspot.com; contact [email protected]
Joselyn Khor - Co-producer
Joselyn Khor found creative strength in directing and marketing writing and presenting her first musical, VIP: Vanity Isn’t Permanent to an audience of over 700 people. This lead to new ventures as she progressed in the role of director/producer for web series, The Ghost.
Spearheading ventures for her production company A+ Productions, Khor also produced the award-winning short film, Butterfly, which garnered attention as an official selection in festivals such as the Jumping Frames International Dance Video Festival.
Her efforts also gained traction within the creative arts community as she rallied artists ranging from filmmakers, graphic designers, painters and performers together for the 2014 creative arts exhibition, ARENA, which attracted over 150 attendees.
She is now producing a local drama/comedy fantast series, AFK, which will premiere on SKY TV's The Zone in October.
Benjamin Teh - actor
Born in 1985, Benjamin spent his childhood in England, before returning to his birthplace of Singapore until the age of sixteen, when he moved to New Zealand. He studied Film and Drama at the University of Auckland, and finished his education with a Masters in Screenwriting.
During university, Benjamin’s interests expanded from only directing, to acting and writing as well. His voracious appetite for the performing arts allowed him to constantly be involved in UoA’s drama club, Stage 2 Productions, and UoA’s film club, the Film Production Group.
Benjamin is always involved in several projects at the same time, having solidified a reputation for being a jack-of-all-trades and wearing the different caps of actor, writer and director at any given time.
He has written and directed several short plays and short films, and is branching out into bigger and better projects. He has previously collaborated with Renee Liang, acting in her plays The Bone Feeder and First Asian A** B****. He has also collaborated with Roseanne Liang, being featured in screen projects My Wedding and Other Secrets and Flat 3. He is currently working on an original content series called Potential, and a play called Let’s Save The Universe!
Benjamin won an International Best Short Film at the 2011 Urban Mediamakers Film Festival in Duluth, Georgia for his Honours thesis film, Just Pretending. He was also part of the 48Hrs writing team that won Best Script for their film Finger Bang in 2012. And holds the sole writing credit for the 48Hrs team that won Audience Favourite award, and was nominated for a New Rising Talent award, for their film Sleepless in Seatoun. Benjamin has appeared on stage for The 39 Steps, which won the 2013 ACTT Award for Comedy, and acted for TV mini-series Passion In Paradise, which was recently awarded a Silver Medal at the New York Festivals International Film & Television Awards.
Hweiling Ow - actor
Hweiling Ow, an actor and producer, has been a regular on stage, screen and online for many years. In 2015 she did Renee’s solo show, Under The Same Moon, performing to packed houses in Wellington and Auckland. This play will tour NZ as part of Arts On Tour’s 2016 menu. In 2014 she was cast in Carl Nixon’s Two Fish ‘n’ a Scoop at the Fortune Theatre in Dunedin, enjoying rave reviews. It concluded with a tour round the Central and South of Otago, to full houses and standing ovations. Hweiling later played the same role in Centrepoint Theatre’s production of the play. She was previously involved in the ensemble cast of The Secret of Dongting Lake that was held at that Auckland Concert Chambers in 2010.
Hweiling has also had a guest role on Shortland Street as Angkasa, Scotty's ex-lover; the mandarin teacher in My Weddings and Other Secrets, a real estate agent in Agent Anna, a recurring role on Flat3 webseries; and the Production Assistant in The Jaquie Brown Diaries.
Hweiling has been part of the 48 hours film festival competition, as a producer and actor, with some of the short films making it to the Auckland and National finals, winning best actress in 2014. Hweiling is originally from Malaysia and speaks Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin and Malay. [email protected]
Amanda Leo – Director
Amanda Grace Leo is a Kiwi Singaporean who has spent her life almost equally between New Zealand and Singapore/ Amanda is a co-founder of Female Company (www.femalecompany.co.nz), a new theatre company which focuses on strong roles for women. She is currently doing her Honours in Drama at the University of Auckland.
Amanda's recent roles include Tituba in StageTwo's 2012 The Crucible, Productions, Officer Barrel in Manukau Performing Art's 2012 Urinetown and Dr. Livingstone in Female Company's debut show Agnes Of God. In 2013, she was one of the two solo actresses in Theatre Of Love's Enigma Box for the Auckland Fringe Festival and went on to co-direct and co-write Auckland Music Theatre's Interns Wanted 2013 show InTransit. In 2014, Amanda won Best Female Performer from Jun Bin Lee's KTV Heaven at Short+Sweet Song and performed in Pretty Asian Theatre's award-winning Call Of The Sparrows the week before for Short+Sweet Theatre. Amanda's latest work was the highly-praised developmental season of A House Is Not A Home; A Cabaret at Garnet Station's Tiny Theatre as co-creator, co-producer and performer in association with Boni Te Rongopai Tukiwaho. She has always been interested in opening dialogue about cross-cultural issues, especially those pertinent to Aotearoa.
Sam Mence – Lighting design
Sam runs Creative Ambience Stage Technologies. With 6 years lighting and sound design experience, Sam specialises in multitrack recording and band audio production. His passion is stage lighting for theatre and musical events (past shows include Summer Shakespeare, Macbeth and The Vagina Monologues.)
Sarah Burren – Costume design and set elements
Sarah has been in creative industries for over 30 years. She has worked extensively in New Zealand, and lived in London and Toronto for 15 years during the 80s and 90s. She has designed and constructed costumes for TVCs, theatre and worked for BBC Television after graduating from the London College of Fashion 1983.
She has produced and worked on multiple theatre shows as set and costume designer, as well as building creatures and delivering concepts for live events, television and film.
Website www.journeytothedeep.com
Julie Zhu - photography, design and production assistance
Julie moved to NZ when she was four years old and has loved growing up here amongst the smorgasbord of diversity that Aotearoa and Auckland in particular is known for.
She is currently working towards her Honours in Screen Production at the University of Auckland. In her spare time she operates a photography business (check out Julie Zhu Photography on Facebook!), gets involved with some political things here and there, and is fiercely passionate about issues of social justice.
She has appeared in two productions at her local community theatre, Howick Little Theatre, including Two Fish 'n' a Scoop in 2014, as well as acted as stage manager and production co-ordinator for several plays there. She also sits on the HLT Committee sharing the marketing/comms portfolio.