Jonathan King

Film school for Rip It Up graphic designer Jonathan King was learning on the job — on the sets of the 100 plus music videos he began directing in the 1990s. Among them were NZ Music Awards Best Video nominee Behold My Kool Style, and the 'look, no guitars' clip for Fur Patrol chart topper 'Lydia'. King made his big screen debut in 2006 with comedy horror hit Black Sheep, about genetically-modified sheep run amok. It screened around the world. He followed it with Under the Mountain — based on Maurice Gee's tale of aliens in Auckland — then in 2014, self-funded twister REALITi. A sequel to Black Sheep was announced in late 2024.

People like Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson were very inspiring to me . . . they didn’t wait for their break, they went and made things. And now those guys, as it happens, are some of the biggest filmmakers in the world. Jonathan King, in an interview for website Filmlot