Miriama McDowell

Miriama McDowell made a splash in 2005 with a trio of roles: her award-nominated turn as one of the sisters in Toa Fraser film No. 2, a cop on TV's Interrogation, and a starring role as a WWII wife in an episode of Taonga. Since then the Toi Whakaari graduate has featured in sci-fi thriller This is Not My Life and acclaimed film The Dark Horse. In miniseries Hope and Wire she was a wife escaping post-quake Christchurch. McDowell won two awards after co-starring as a pregnant woman in 2015 film The Great Maiden's Blush. She went on to act in rugby drama Head High and thriller Coming Home in the Dark, and played Whina Cooper in biopic Whina.

...wow, the things I had to do in that film. I had to give birth. I had to do drag racing. I had to float down the Hutt River in jeans and a sweatshirt in the middle of winter . . . you feel most alive as an actor when you’re doing things that you don’t get the opportunity to do in real life. Challenge is the best thing that can happen to us. Miriama McDowell on her award-winning role in film The Great Maiden's Blush, E-Tangata, 22 April 2017