INTERVIEW AS A CREW:
DAVID FANE & ANAPELA POLATAIVAO
IN CONVERSATION + VIRTUAL COFFEE BREAKS
Saturday 27th September 21:00 (BST / UTC+1)
Join us for an extra special edition of Interview as a Crew! We're not just bringing back the delightful David Fane on his own, we have the lovely Anapela Polataivao joining him! If you were with us for The New Uni-Con, in person or virtually, you'll know why we wanted to hear more from David, and why Anapela was our first - and only - choice for his conversation partner. This will surely be an event for Our Flag fans won't want to miss.
In an exclusive Interview as a Crew In Conversation, David and Anapela will be sharing stories working together as friends of 20 years and welcoming Anapela to the Our Flag Means Death family in Season 2.
After their In Conversation panel, both David and Anapela will be taking part in individual Virtual Coffee Breaks.
Anapela - Saturday 27th September, 22:15 (BST / UTC+1)
David - Saturday 27th September, 23:30 (BST / UTC+1)
TICKETS
VIRTUAL COFFEE BREAKS ON SALE
MONDAY 4TH AUGUST 8PM (BST / UTC+1)
DAVID FANE
A proud Samoan-New Zealander, David Fane is one of Aotearoa, New Zealand’s most versatile actors, well known for the eclectic characters he has created across his prolific career on stage and screen.
After training at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, David first appeared in the early 90s on various local sketch comedy shows, before going on to become a regular on large and small screens in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
Pretty quickly, David realised it's always best to work with the people you like, so he teamed up with some of his best mates to found theatre company, The Naked Samoans. Their particular brand of cutting-edge satire found an instant audience and has endured over 25 years to produce numerous sell out stage shows, 2 feature films- Sione’s Wedding 1 and 2 (released in the U.S. as Samoan Wedding 1 and 2), and the award winning animated series, Bro’town, for which David co- wrote, and voiced multiple iconic characters over 5 seasons.
Some of David’s film roles include Tongan Ninja, The Tattooist, Love Birds, Paper Champions, and Yesterday Island, as well as the Taika Waititi comedies, Eagle vs Shark, and Next Goal Wins. In 2024, David voiced the reluctant seafarer Kele in Disney’s hugely successful Moana 2.
David's TV roles include two seasons of the HBO Max run-away piratical hit, Our Flag Means Death. In Australia and NZ his TV work includes The Strip, Wellington Paranormal, Outrageous Fortune, The Brokenwood Mysteries, 800 Words, Fresh Eggs, and The Messenger.
In 2016, David received Creative New Zealand’s Pacific Arts Senior Artist award, and in 2023 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the performing arts. In 2024 David held the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency at the University of Hawai’i.
ANAPELA POLATAIVAO
Anapela graduated from New Zealand’s leading Drama School: Toi Whakaari with a Bachelor of Arts Degree Majoring in Acting (BA) in 2002, since then she carved out a career not only in front of the camera but also for Theatre as an Actor, Producer & Director.
More recently (2023) Anapela has been recognised in this year's King's Birthday Honours for services to Pacific communities across Aotearoa. An actor, director, writer, and dramaturg, Polataivao's work has brought the voice of South Auckland women to stages and screens around the world.
Polataivao gained international acclaim for her performance in the short film Night Shift (2012) and won Best Actress in the 2018 Wellington Theatre Awards for her role in Tusiata Avia’s Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, which she also directed and then went on to make history in 2020 as the first Samoan woman to have directed a show off-Broadway when Wild Dogs Under My Skirt made its New York debut and was subsequently named the winner of the Fringe Encore Series at the SoHo Playhouse.
As co-founder of the Kila Kokonut Krew theatre collective in 2002, giving South Auckland performers a platform, Polataivao was named a New Generation Arts Laureate in 2014. She has directed multiple works, including Sole Mio’s original opera Alofagia: Le Opera and Tusiata Avia’s Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, some of which have toured NZ, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 2019, she received Creative NZ’s Pacific Contemporary Artist Award. Polataivao taught at the Pacific Institute of Pacific Arts, inspiring a new generation of performers, who have gone on to make a significant impact in the entertainment industry.
Screen highlights include feature films such as The Justice of Bunny King starring alongside Australian actor Essie Davis, One Thousand Ropes written & directed by Tusi Tamasese , The Changeover directed by Stuart McKenzie & Miranda Harcourt and New Zealand series such as Filthy Rich, Duckrockers & The Panthers which won 8 awards at this year’s NZ Film & Television Ceremony. Most recently Anapela starred in the Australian series The Messenger, Season 2 of Taika Waititi’s Our Flag Means Death for HBO Max and New Zealand feature film Tinā directed by Miki Magasiva playing the lead role of Mareta.
