Rob Mokaraka

After studying acting in Whangarei, Rob Mokaraka won a Best Newcomer Chapman Tripp acting award for 2001 play Have Car, Will Travel. On screen he was part of the ensemble cast in acclaimed Māori Battalion tale Tama Tu, and Paolo Rotondo-directed short The Freezer. Mokaraka and Rotondo would later collaborate on award-winning play Strange Resting Places, a tale of Māori and Italian bonds during World War ll. 

Strange Resting Places takes the lost stories of small people caught up in war, and magnifies their tragedies with respect and a smile. The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner, reviewing Rob Mokaraka and Paolo Rotondo’s play Strange Resting Places