New Zealand documentary film directors

Lucille Frances Lawless MNZM (née Ryan; born 29 March 1968) is a New Zealand actress and singer. Lawless is perhaps best known for her roles as the title character in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001); cylon model Number Three D'Anna Biers on the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica series (2005–2009); and Lucretia in the television series Spartacus: Blood and Sand (2010), its prequel Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (2011), and its sequel Spartacus: Vengeance (2012).

Sir Nigel John Dermot "Sam" Neill KNZM OBE (born 14 September 1947) is a New Zealand actor. Neill's 53-year career has included leading roles in both dramas and blockbusters. Considered an "international leading man", he has been regarded as one of the most versatile actors of his generation.

Pietra Brettkelly (born 1965) is a New Zealand filmmaker, known for her documentaries. She is a three-time Oscar-nominated elected documentary filmmaker, a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and was recently named an Arts Laureate of New Zealand. Her films have premiered in five of the world's six top film festivals – Sundance, Toronto, Venice, Berlin and Tribeca Film Festivals and garnered many awards. She is known for her independent, risk-taking style, which has taken her to nearly 100 countries.

Leanne Pooley ONZM is a Canadian filmmaker based in Auckland, New Zealand. Pooley was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, she immigrated to New Zealand in the mid-1980s and began working in the New Zealand television and film industry before moving to England where she worked for many of the world's top broadcasters (BBC, Channel 4, PBS, Discovery etc.). She returned to New Zealand in 1997 and started the production company Spacific Films. Her career spans more than 25 years and she has won numerous international awards (including the People's Choice Award for Documentary at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2009). Leanne Pooley was made a New Zealand Arts Laureate in 2011 and an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year's Honours List 2017. She is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Helen Jean Brew MBE (née Butler; 22 November 1922 – 12 January 2013) was a New Zealand actor, birth campaigner, documentary filmmaker, educator and speech therapist for children. She developed a belief that most of Western society's dysfunction to its approach to childbirth created stress and suffering for women in childbirth and in 1952 co-established the Natural Childbirth Group that later became Parents Centres New Zealand. Brew taught pregnant women informal antenatal classes and she travelled to China, Israel, Europe and Tibet during her career. She made film documentaries such as Birth with R.D. Laing and had a role in the soap opera Close to Home in 1975.

Brian Jamieson is a director, producer, and studio executive.

Yasmine Ryan (ca. 1983 – 30 November 2017) was a print, television and multimedia journalist from New Zealand. She was involved in covering the Arab Spring for Al Jazeera English. Ryan also created documentaries.

Lloyd Spencer Davis (born 1954) is a New Zealand-based author, filmmaker, scientist and science communicator. Born in Napier in 1954, he is known particularly for his creative nonfiction writing about science and nature subjects. He has published ten books and been co-editor of another two, as well as authoring over 150 scientific papers.

Margaret Thomson (10 June 1910 – 30 December 2005) was an Australian-born documentary filmmaker who divided her forty-year career between New Zealand and England. She was the first female film director active in New Zealand.

Makerita Urale is a documentary director and a leading figure in contemporary Polynesian theatre in New Zealand. She has produced landmark productions in the performing arts. She is also a playwright. She is the writer of the play Frangipani Perfume, the first Pacific play written by a woman for an all-female cast. Working in different art mediums, Urale also works in film and television. She is the director of the political documentary Children of the Revolution that won the Qantas Award (2008) for Best Māori Programme. Urale was born on the island of Savai'i in Samoa.The family moved to New Zealand in the 1970s where they lived in Wellington. Urale has two brothers and three sisters, and the siblings also work in the arts and media. Urale's sister Sima Urale is a filmmaker and brother King Kapisi is a hip-hop artist.