Mia Blake

Tongan-born Kiwi Mia Blake made her screen debut in romantic comedy Hopeless (2000). By then she'd already trained in dance, and taken on Shakespeare while doing a degree in Theatre and Film at Victoria University. In 2006 she won an NZ Screen Award, for her role as a hardworking Fijian-Kiwi mother in No. 2, based on Toa Fraser's acclaimed play. A starring role in Samoan-themed horror movie The Tattooist followed, and then another acting nomination for darkly comic short film This is Her. Blake has also acted for Auckland’s Silo Theatre. By 2020 she had begun alternating acting work with directing on Shortland Street.

She’s cutting, funny, and a very good dancer. James Wenley, in a review of Silo Theatre play Private Lives, Theatre Scenes website, 12 September 2012