Sandra Kailahi

Sandra Maria Kailahi is a New Zealand journalist, author, playwright and film producer.

Biography Kailahi was selected for the 2005 Pasifika Playwright Development Forum run by Playmarket and Auckland City Council, and also took part in Playmarket's Playwright Studio in 2007 where she was mentored by Fiona Samuel.

Kailahi has a Master of International Communication from Unitec Institute of Technology. Her thesis, Tongan women talking about their lives in leadership in New Zealand : a participatory visual methodological approach to talanoa, gender and culture, was published in 2017.

In broadcasting Kailahi was part of the formation of Radio 531 PI, a semi-commercial Pacifika radio station in Auckland and she has worked for Radio New Zealand. She has worked in television with Tagata Pasifika as a reporter for 11 years, Fair Go for three years and also TVNZ 7, Te Karere and One News. Kailahi is of Tongan and Pākehā German descent. Kailahi's first play On a Different Shelf was presented at the Herald Theatre in the Aotea Centre in 2008. It was produced by the Stamp programme at The Edge, directed by Katrina Chandra and performed by Christina Bristow, Fiona Collins, Cherie James and Jenni Heka. Her first feature documentary was in 2019, For My Father’s Kingdom which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival. It screened in New Zealand at the New Zealand International Film Festival, and has themes of mental wellbeing, resiliency, faith, love and fatherhood in a Tongan community and features Saia Mafile'o and his children.

Meet Munch Jr. is a Loading Docs short documentary directed by Ali Cowley and produced by Kailahi about an autistic teenager who creates a cartoon character puppet.

Awards

The New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 Nominated for Best Pasifika Programme: for Brutal Lives - Mo'ui Faingata'a, 2021 New Zealand Television Awards