Jane Waddell

First ensnared by acting while training to be a teacher in Dunedin, Jane Waddell graduated from Wellington's New Zealand Drama School in 1975. On television she has starred as legendary safe sex campaigner Ettie Rout in an episode of Pioneer Women, played Irene on hit comedy Gliding On, and voiced a parrot for BBC comedy Grandad. In the 90s Waddell moved into TV directing, including youth shows Squirt and Oi. In 2020 she co-starred in a movie version of The Turn of the Screw. Waddell has acted in and directed a host of plays — including 2007 Chapman Tripp award-winner Home Land — often at Wellington’s Circa Theatre.

Jane Waddell as sister Mattie Fay gives one of her finest performances in a long and illustrious career on stage in Wellington, as does Michelle Amas. [They are] totally convincing in the emotional roller coaster each goes through. Ewen Coleman, reviewing Circa Theatre's 2011 production of August: Osage County, The Dominion Post, 5 April 2011