Rebecca Hobbs

Rebecca Hobbs has qualifications as both an actor (from Wellington's Toi Whakaari) and lawyer. After graduating from Canterbury University she spent two years as a barrister and solicitor, before concentrating on her acting career.

Hobbs got her screen break in the mid 90s on Shortland Street. She did 60 episodes as nurse Annie Flynn, controversially kissing a female doctor along the way, before acting in tele-movie romance Share the Dream, and snaring a starring role in horror movie The Ugly.The latter film won international acclaim; awarded at European fantasy festival Fantasporto for her acting, Hobbs shone as the outwardly strong psychologist, caught up in an extended face-off against a serial killer.

The Ugly was one of her only big-screen roles to date, though it wasn’t the first: she had briefly debuted as the on-screen sister of real-life sibling Katrina Hobbs, in WWII-era romance Absent Without Leave (1992).

After facing serial killers and spiders in The Ugly and short film Larger than Life, Hobbs decamped to Australia to guest on a number of TV series, including a recurring role on Water Rats. She returned home in the late 90s to rejoin the cast of Shortland Street, this time as a different character, nurse Kate Larsen.

Since then Hobbs has proven her versatility, and not just as an actor. On screen she has done comedy (in political satire Spin Doctors) showcased an American accent (as sidekick to Lucille Ball on Kiwi-shot tele-movie Lucy), hosted talk show The Panel, and performed the cha cha on Dancing with the Stars (showing up her brother, fellow actor Christopher, in the process).

Hobbs is also a writer. Her debut play The Unsung Boy was nominated for outstanding short play in the 1996 Chapman Tripp theatre awards. Hobbs starred as nurse who befriends a cerebral palsy sufferer. Sunday Star-Times critic Dave Andrews praised the play for avoiding sentimentality and political correctness.

In 2001 Hobbs wrote and directed short film Tick, which features her Ugly co-star Paolo Rotondo. Pavement writer Lisa Miller called it "one of the most worthwile short films I've seen in ages ... a clever story, nicely rounded and thought-provoking". Tick won an award at an Italian short film festival, and was picked for the opening night of the 2002 New York Film Festival, alongside Jack Nicholson movie About Schmidt.

She went on to co-create and write 2003 adventure series P.E.T Detectives, with Michael Bennett. The show revolves around four junior detectives whose remit involves everything from pets to paranormals, extraterrestrials and time-travellers. Hobbs has also written for TV dramas Mercy Peak, Street Legal, and Interrogation.

In 2007 she returned to the other side of the camera to play one of four women caught up in spousal murder in TV series Burying Brian.

Sources include
Dave Andrews, 'High-risk two-hander tackles issues head-on' (Review of The Unsung Boy) - Sunday Star-Times, 28 September 1997, page F2
Lisa Miller, 'Shorts' (Review of Tick)- Pavement no 55, October 2002, page 172
'Rebecca Hobbs' (IMDB entry) - The Internet Movie Database website. Accessed 29 November 2011
The Ugly Press Kit