Biography

Her breakthrough role as Grace Heke in the Lee Tamahori

Lee Tamahori

Lee Tamahori is a New Zealand filmmaker best known for directing the 1994 film Once Were Warriors and the 2002 James Bond film Die Another Day.-Upbringing and early career:...

 film, Once Were Warriors

Once Were Warriors (film)

Once Were Warriors is a 1994 film based on New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling 1990 first novel. The film tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and their problems with poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, mostly brought on by family patriarch Jake...

, based on the book of the same name

Once Were Warriors

Once Were Warriors is New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling first novel, published in 1990. It tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and portrays the reality of domestic violence. It was the basis of a 1994 film, directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Rena Owen and Temuera...

 by Alan Duff

Alan Duff

Alan Duff is a New Zealand novelist and newspaper columnist, most well known as the author of Once Were Warriors.- Biography :...

, was as a "sixteen-year-old newcomer [when Kerr-Bell] was discovered by casting director Don Selwyn

Don Selwyn

Don C. Selwyn was a Maori actor and film director from New Zealand. He was a founding member of the New Zealand Maori Theatre Trust and directed the 2002 film The Merchant of Venice, the first Maori language feature film with English subtitles.Born of Ngati Kuri and Te Aupouri descent, Selwyn grew...

 while accompanying a friend to the auditions for Once Were Warriors. She had never acted before but when Selwyn asked her if she'd like to read, she accepted and instantly won over Rena Owen

Rena Owen

Rena Owen is a New Zealand actress in film, theatre and television. She is of Maori, Torres Strait Islander and Pakeha descent. Owen is most well known in the lead role of Beth in the cult classic movie Once Were Warriors directed by Lee Tamahori...

 and Temuera Morrison

Temuera Morrison

Temuera Derek Morrison is a New Zealand-born actor. He has become one of the country's most famous stars for his roles as the abusive Jake "the Muss" Heke in 1994's Once Were Warriors and as bounty hunter Jango Fett and the Clone Troopers in the Star Wars series...

, who play her parents. About her role she says, 'Some things I had to pretend but other things I could relate to quite well. I know a lot of people whose father would beat them and their mother and I could relate to Grace helping her mother bring up the kids because I have a little brother and two baby sisters.'

Director Tamahori says she "was just a natural. I was astounded by what she had behind her eyes and the sheer timeless beauty of her face. She looked both old and young and I had seen faces like that in a lot of research I'd done. She seemed to carry a lot of history with her and it was a haunting face".

Filmography

• "Mataku" - The Sisters (2002) TV Episode .... Nola
• Staunch (2000) (TV)
• "Duggan" - Last Resort (1999) TV Episode .... Private Kate Ngarimu
• Shortland Street
  Shortland Street
  Shortland Street is a New Zealand prime-time soap opera, first broadcast on Television New Zealand's TV2 on 25 May 1992. It is the country's longest-running drama and soap opera, being broadcast continuously for over 4500 episodes and 19 years, and is one of the most watched television programs in...
  
   (1992) TV Series .... Tania Rikihana (1997)
• Once Were Warriors
  Once Were Warriors
  Once Were Warriors is New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling first novel, published in 1990. It tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and portrays the reality of domestic violence. It was the basis of a 1994 film, directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Rena Owen and Temuera...
  
  (1994) .... Grace Heke