Katie Wolfe

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 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. 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." The play was produced as a documentary film The Haka Party Incident in 2024, due for release on or about .

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.