Joanna Paul-Robie

Joanna Paul-Robie's screen career spans three decades, much of it under the name Joanna Paul. In that time she has done everything from reading the prime time news on TV3 to helping launch a new television network. En route, she has done time as a board member of Māori Television and funding organisation Te Māngai Pāho.

Paul-Robie grew up in Hamilton, the middle sister of three. As a child, she took part in theatre and ballet, and also recalls having to play peacemaker to her parents, who later separated. She began an arts degree at Waikato University but it was soon abandoned, after she joined Radio New Zealand. The job led her to Tauranga, where she trained to be a programme director at Radio Bay of Plenty.

She began the 1980s in radio, and ended the decade at new television network TV3. In-between, she was learning about film and television in a variety of ways. As Joanna Paul, she had already made her screen acting debut, in 1978 Ngaio Marsh mystery Colour Scheme. After joining the ensemble of Māori talent on 1982 teleplay The Protestors, she was invited to star as Princess Te Puea in this episode of Pioneer Women. She also spent three months on soap Close to Home, "spewing out political rhetoric" as John Bach's "bit of fluff", and acted in one-off bicultural drama Just Passing  Through. 

The acting roles taught her two things — that she "wasn't going to cut it" as an actor, and that the real power lay behind the camera. She got work as a TV researcher on both sides of the Tasman, and worked in a variety of production roles, including helping produce This is New Zealand, a weekly series for US cable television.

Among the treasured mentors she met in this period was director Merata Mita, who invited her to the East Coast to join her on 1988 feature Mauri. Paul-Robie began as a first assistant director, and was soon handling scenes as a second unit director. Despite the 15 hour days, she "loved working under that pressure. The whole thing gave me an insight into the cultural differences of filming."

Māori voices were clambering to be heard more on-screen. Paul-Robie was among those working with Barry Barclay in launching Māori screen collective Te Manu Aute, which campaigned for Māori stories to receive more funding. One of the results was anthology show E Tipu E Rea (1989), a breakthrough series in terms of showcasing Māori-driven narratives and talent. Originally hoping to take on a contemporary woman's story, she was instead given Hone Tuwhare's male coming of age tale Eel to direct, and soon fell in love with it.

Set in a 1950s rural community, Eel chronicles the relationship between an ailing war veteran and his 13-year-old nephew. Tuwhare's original screenplay was feature-length, which meant substantial shortening to fit a half-hour television slot. 

After six months as a presenter on TVNZ's children's nature show Wildtrack, Paul-Robie was invited to join new channel TV3. When the channel launched in November 1989, Paul-Robie was one of the first faces on air, presenting that day's breakfast bulletin. "The fact that TV3 was prepared for its first face to be a Māori face was an indescribable high for me as a broadcaster, a woman and a Māori," she later told The NZ Herald.

Six months after the network went to air, she took over the role of primetime newsreader at 6pm, from Philip Sherry. By then TV3 had added late night news show Nightline to its schedule. Paul-Robie read the day's headlines, then joined her colourful co-host Belinda Todd for Nightline's more light-hearted second half, which made a habit of "pushing the envelope".

"The beauty was it was two chicks," said Paul-Robie, "not the banal banter of a pseudo hubby-wife on-screen combo". Elsewhere she commented that "simplistically one could say I was the straight act and Belinda was the colourful character. But our adlibbing has actually given us a lot more personality than other news shows allow." She reminisces about her time on Nightline in this radio interview, and in the second clip of the show's 20th Anniversary Episode.

Later Paul-Robie moved to current affairs at TV One, where she spent time as an anchor on the prime time One Network News. She also found time to direct 1997 short film Hei Konei Ra. It was one of four dramatised interpretations of waiata, collected together under the title Ihi Wahine.

Paul is "very proud" of the part she played in 2002 te reo series Aroha. The idea for the show was first discussed when Paul-Robie met with Melissa Wikaire and Karen Sidney, to mark the passing of a mutual friend, editor Cherie O'Shea. Aroha was partly intended to address a lack of te reo content on-screen. The trio produced six half-hour episodes of the anthology show, which mixed emerging talents like writer Briar Grace-Smith with established names like Temuera Morrison and Cliff Curtis. Aroha was named Best TV Series at Canadian indigenous festival ImagineNATIVE, but behind the scenes there were legal tousles about its costs. 

From April 2002 to August 2004, Paul-Robie was General Manager of Programmes and Production at Māori Television. She talks about the birth of the network in this video interview. On leaving, Paul-Robie described her time at the channel as a career highlight.

"It was the opportunity to bring together a team and to utilise all the skills I have learnt in over two decades in the broadcasting industry. Its success is my reward. . ."

Since then Paul-Robie has made further documentaries (some of them through her former production company Freckle Films), and worked with director Pietra Brettkelly. She has also been a media consultant and lectured in media studies.

In 2024, she received the Ngā Tohu Tai Icon Award for contributions to the creative industries over many years, across radio and television. She described the moment as the "most honourable experience of my life,"  and spoke of the significance of the award to her, especially after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis. "...to have this award before one posthumously gets it is an even better break".

RNZ reporter Mihingarangi Forbes spoke to Paul-Robie about her career. "As a young Māori reporter, at times you were the only wāhine Māori on our screens, Joanna. We want to thank you for being a trailblazer, for kicking down those doors and leaving them wide open."

Paul-Robie has sometimes been confused with Hamilton-born multimedia artist and filmmaker Joanna (Margaret) Paul, who died in 2003.

Profile updated on 31 July 2024

Sources include
'Joanna Paul: portrait of an over-achiever...' (Video Interview), NZ On Screen website. Director James Coleman. Loaded 18 July 2011. Accessed 29 June 2019
Douglas Jenkin, ‘Life in the Zoo’ - The Listener (TV Times section), 5 November 1990, page 32
Sarah Lang, '3's company' - The NZ Herald, 23 November 2009
Mihingarangi Forbes and Justine Murray, 'Broadcaster Joanna Paul Robie unveils terminal cancer diagnosis' (Radio Interview), Radio New Zealand website. Loaded 28 June 2024. Accessed 31 July 2024
Wendyl Nissen and Jenny Scown (Photography), Filling the Frame - Profiles of 18 New Zealand Women (Auckland: Reed Books, 1992) 
Unknown writer, 'New television love stories will bring together Māori talent' - Tū Mai 24, July 2001, page 26
Unknown writer, '3's Musketeers - Joanna Paul' - The Listener (TV Times pullout), 27 November 1989, page 91
Unknown writer, 'Joanna Paul Resigns For Maori TV' (press release) Scoop website. Loaded 26 July 2004. Accessed 31 July 2023
E Tipu e Rea press kit