Vanessa Byrnes

Vanessa Byrnes is a director, actress and educator in New Zealand. She has collaborated on many theatre and screen productions including feature films, short films, television commercials and theatre. As an educator she completed a PhD at the University of Waikato in 2015, titled Removing the ‘Cloak of Invisibility’: New Zealand Directors Discuss Theatre Directing Praxis. Byrnes has been in senior roles at both Toi Whakaari and Unitec Institute of Technology, leading drama training for many years. She is an experienced theatre director and as an actor was in popular television soap opera Shortland Street.

For 11 years Byrnes held the acting department manager job at Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School and she is a graduate of the school from 1994. It was presented at the Pop-Up Globe in Bard's Yard, Auckland.

As an actor Byrnes appeared in New Zealand's long running soap opera Shortland Street. She has numerous TV and film credits to her name including Mirror Mirror, The Strip and Step Dave.

As well as her academic writing, Byrnes often writes reviews for theatre productions.

Directing credits

Board membership Downstage Theatre PlayMarket Shakespeare Globe Centre (NZ) TAPAC: The Auckland Performing Arts Centre