John A Givins

Although John A Givins is known as a television producer and director, he began as an actor. Givins' company, Livingstone Productions, has gone on to produce programmes for a range of NZ and overseas broadcasters. 

Givins spent seven years in theatre as an actor and director, before moving into television in 1982. He had already acted on screen in kidult breakthrough Children of Fire Mountain; the year he joined TVNZ as an actor/director, Givins appeared as one of the detectives in Arthur Allan Thomas feature Beyond Reasonable Doubt.

At TVNZ he gained experience across a range of genres, from children's television to magazine and arts shows (Kaleidoscope), to his work directing drama series (Country GP, Seekers).

In 1989 Givins left TVNZ to establish his own company, Livingstone Productions. There he helped initiate early TV3 sketch comedy show Laughinz, whose cast included Rima Te Wiata, Mark Wright and Jay Laga'aia. The hour-long show soon morphed into Issues. Givins also produced live television events such as The Hero Parade and The Wearable Art Awards. 

In 1998, Givins' company took over producing Queer Nation, a magazine show made for, and by, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender New Zealanders. The show's eleven season run made it the world's longest running programme of its kind; Givins executive produced it for six years. Queer Nation was crowned Best Factual Series at the 2003 NZ Television Awards, plus a slew of awards from the NZ Aids Foundation.

His other shows as producer include award-winning historical series Captain's Log, hosted by Peter Elliott, and 2005's Farr from Heaven, a doco about "funny, open, stimulating and energetic" gay composer Gareth Farr, which Givins writes about here. He also produced Tainui Stephens short The Hill, which was selected for screening at the Sundance Film Festival.

Givins then moved to Hong Kong, where he helped establish television service Star TV in Asia, India and the Middle East. He developed and implemented custom training courses for the Korean Broadcasting Commission and Singapore Education Department. 

Back in New Zealand he developed a range of teaching and consulting positions in media education and actor training. 

Givins has gone on to help Māori Television develop its own production unit, and also produced several programmes for the channel, including sit-com/chat show B & B, starring Hori Ahipene and Te Radar, talent search show Toru, and a series on leading rural māori women, Ngā Wahine Mauri Ora.

Givins is currently developing Witi Ihimaera novel The Uncle's Story as a feature film. He also does the occasional acting cameo — including one as a TV producer in 2008 feature Apron Strings.

Sources include
Livingstone Productions website (broken link). Accessed 23 November 2011
'John Givins' - The Internet Movie Database website. Accessed 23 November 2011