Anapela Polataivao

Samoan-born and South Auckland raised, Anapela Polataivao began acting at age eight. After graduating from Toi Whakaari she launched multimedia group Kila Kokonut Krew in 2002, with Vela Manusaute; they were prime movers behind community TV show KTV and musical The Factory, which became a 2014 web series. Polataivao is also half of comic duo Pani & Pani, with Goretti Chadwick. They created and hosted Māori TV hit Games of Bros. Polataivao's CV also includes an award-winning role in short Night Shift and a nomination for series The Market. She teaches acting at the Pacific Institute of Performing Arts.

Kila Kokonut Krew...that company was formed because being graduates of drama school, we'd come out and realised that there was nothing out there for us. Also quickly realising that you got to just do it yourself, don't wait around, you just got to get on with it. Anapela Polataivao on her multimedia company Kila Kokonut Krew, in her extended interview for 2019 TV series Funny As: The Story of New Zealand Comedy