Biographie
Lisa has a background in both production and development and has worked in the creation of screen stories for more than 20 year, forging a successful career as both an independent producer and funding body executive.
Lisa began her career as a production assistant and then production manager for natural history and children's TV series, whilst also producing short films on the side. She left TV for a while to expand her film knowledge on Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh's feature film Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey. Following the films premiere in 1994 Lisa worked as a Casting Assistant at Hubbard's casting in London working on films including The Run of the Country and Loch Ness; before taking a job at the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol on iconic The Really Wild Show.
Returning to New Zealand Lisa continued to collaborate with writer / director Robert Sarkies across short films and TV commercials. During this time she also worked as a fixer for the BBC across two series and line-produced international TVC's. In 1998 after several short films together Lisa produced Robert's definitive Dunedin movie Scarfies which played in World Competition at Sundance in 1999, broke NZ box office records and won Best NZ Film in 2001. At the time of production Lisa was 25 and the youngest producer in NZ to achieve more than NZ$1.5 million in feature film funding.
In 2001 Lisa moved to Sydney where she worked with Timothy White as Production & Development Executive for acclaimed UK production company Working Title. Projects she was central to include Gregor Jordan's Ned Kelly starring Heath Ledger and Naomi Watts, award-winning David Wenham comedy Gettin' Square and she was Associate Producer on Toa Fraser's No. 2. She was also invited on to the Board of the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC), who were responsible for feature film investment, by then Prime Minister and Minister of Arts and Culture, Helen Clark, and she served on the Board for 5 years.
Lisa returned to New Zealand in 2004 to raise a family and began working with Robin Scholes, producer of Once Were Warriors, at Touchdown Film and Television (now Warner Bros. Television NZ) developing feature films. In 2009 she joined Natural History New Zealand as Production Manager for National Geographic's major international dinosaur series, Jurassic CSI, which filmed across 5 continents.
In 2011 Lisa joined the New Zealand Film Commission as Short Film Manager, overseeing acclaimed shorts Night Shift (Selected In Competition Cannes, Sundance), Lambs (Selected Berlinale, Clermont-Ferrand), and Ellen is Leaving (Winner SXSW Grand Jury prize). Lisa was promoted in 2013 to be the inaugural NZFC Head of Development and Production working across a broad collection of films including scripted feature films, co-productions and feature documentaries. Across 3 years in the role Lisa worked across more than 30 feature films in production and many more in development. Notable films include The Dark Horse, 25 April, Born to Dance, documentary Hip-Hoperation, David Farrier and Dylan Reeve's controversial Tickled, 6 Days and Taika Waititi's Hunt for the Wilderpeople.
In 2016 Lisa left the NZFC to become Head of Scripted Development at Pukeko Pictures, the company co-founded by Tania Rodgers, Martin Baynton and multi-Oscar Winner Sir Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop. She worked across a slate of drama including Cleverman Season 2; as well as Executive Producing animations co-produced with China and Canada, Kiddets and Book Hungry Bears.
After a two-year stint at Pukeko, Lisa returned to independent producing. In partnership with Timothy White at Southern Light Films and Working Title Television she has produced the high-end television series The Luminaries for BBC and Fremantle. Adapted for the screen by Eleanor Catton from her Man Booker prize winning novel, the series is set in the turbulent world of New Zealand's gold rush in the 1860s and premiered on TVNZ in May 2020 and broadcasts on BBC One in June.
