Jessica Hansell (aka Coco Solid)

Jessica Hansell (aka Coco Solid) has many strings to her creative bow — artist, musician, writer, director and actor. The Aucklander is the creator of comic and animated series Aroha Bridge, a writer on Wellington Paranormal and a globetrotting rapper. The part Māori, Samoan and German creative has also acted in episodes of Aroha Bridge, which follows a suburban hip hop band. Along with Carthew Neal, she directed 2014 documentary Heaven's Gate, about transgender Pacific culture in South Auckland. In 2018 Hansell was awarded the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer's Residency in Hawaii.  

I feel with the critical increased demand for more marginalised, more diverse writers, you get characters and archetypes moving away from the tired, tumble-dried racist s**t to actual real examples that resonate with people: the sporty, butch aunty with mana to burn; the militant activist uncle; the internalised assimilated dad. I think why [Aroha Bridge] found its audience was that I didn’t want to insult anyone and recycle. I wanted to mine parts of our actual experience, and people show love when you do that. Jessica Hansell in a Guardian interview, 2 April 2018