Taika Waititi

Taika David Waititi (born 16 August 1975), also known as Taika Cohen, is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his 2004 short film Two Cars, One Night.

His feature films Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film, with the latter still holding that title as of 2018. He co-directed and starred in the horror comedy film What We Do in the Shadows (2014) with Jemaine Clement. In 2017, he directed the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Thor: Ragnarok, in which he also played the character Korg, a role he went on to reprise in Avengers: Endgame (2019).

Background
Waititi is from the Raukokore area of the East Coast region of the North Island of New Zealand and grew up there and in Wellington, and attended Onslow College for secondary school. His father is Māori of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and his mother is of Russian-Jewish and Irish heritage. Waititi has used his mother's surname, "Cohen", for some of his work in film and writing.

Comedy and acting work
While a drama student at Victoria University of Wellington, Waititi was part of the five-member ensemble So You're a Man, which toured New Zealand and Australia with some success. He was half of the comedy duo The Humourbeasts alongside Jemaine Clement, which received New Zealand's highest comedy accolade, the Billy T Award, in 1999.

Waititi has also acted on screen since early in his career. He won a local film award for his work as one of the students in the successful low-budget Dunedin film Scarfies (1999) and had smaller roles in the road movie Snakeskin (2001) and the TV series The Strip (2002–03). Waititi played Thomas Kalmaku in 2011 superhero film Green Lantern, and took large roles in two of his own films: 2010's Boy, and 2014's What We Do in the Shadows, which he co-directed and co-wrote with Jemaine Clement. He also plays Korg, a Kronan, via motion capture in his 2017 superhero film Thor: Ragnarok.

Filmmaking
Among a variety of artistic interests, Waititi began making comical short films for New Zealand's annual 48-hour film contest. In 2005 his short film Two Cars, One Night earned him an Academy Award nomination. At the awards ceremony, he famously feigned falling asleep as the nominations were being read out.

His first feature film, oddball romantic comedy Eagle vs Shark, was released in U.S. theatres for limited distribution in 2007. The film stars Waititi's then real-life partner, Loren Horsley, as Lily. The same year, Waititi wrote and directed one episode of the TV show Flight of the Conchords and was director of another.

His second feature, Boy, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Waititi also took one of the main roles, as the ex-con father who returns to his family. On its release in New Zealand, Boy received enthusiastic reviews and was successful at the local box office, eclipsing several records. After the success of Boy, Waititi hoped that the film's signature track "Poi E" would get to number one (for the second time) on the New Zealand charts. The song ultimately reached number three on the charts, but managed to become number one on iTunes.

In 2011, Waititi directed New Zealand TV series Super City starring Madeleine Sami, who plays five characters living in one city.

In 2013, Waititi co-wrote and co-directed vampire comedy mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows with friend and fellow comedian Jemaine Clement. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. Waititi and Clement played members of a group of vampires who live in modern-day Wellington.

Waititi's fourth feature, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. When it was released back in New Zealand, the comedy adventure broke Waititi's own record for a New Zealand film in its opening weekend. Based on a book by Barry Crump, the film centres around a young boy and a grumpy man (played by Sam Neill) on the run in the forest.

Waititi wrote the initial screenplay for the 2016 Disney film Moana, which focused on gender and family. Those elements were passed over in favour of what would become the finalised story.

In 2017, Waititi won the award for New Zealander of the Year, but was unable to receive it in person due to work commitments.

Waititi next directed his first major Hollywood film, Marvel Studios' Thor: Ragnarok, which was released in October 2017. He had previously directed two shorts for Marvel called "Team Thor", which dealt with Thor's living in Australia with his roommate, Darryl Jacobson. He was later brought in to consult with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely on Avengers: Infinity War for Thor's storylines in the beginning of the film.

Waititi was set to collaborate with Mark Gustafson to direct the upcoming stop-motion animated film Bubbles, which was about the life of Michael Jackson seen from the perspective of his pet chimpanzee, Bubbles. However, Waititi left the project in 2019 due to a heavy work schedule. Waititi is also reportedly directing a new live-action film version of Akira and is preparing to start co-writing a sequel to What We Do in the Shadows, titled We're Wolves.

In 2019, Waititi wrote and directed Jojo Rabbit, based on the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens, the 1940s-set story of a young Hitler Youth member whose parents are secretly hiding a Jewish girl in the family home. Waititi plays Adolf Hitler as the boy's imaginary friend.

On July 16, 2019, it was reported that Waititi will write and direct a sequel to Ragnarok,Thor: Love and Thunder, causing Akira to be delayed indefinitely. In early August 2019, Waititi had been hired by The Walt Disney Company to direct a secret project, under their 20th Century Fox banner. Later that month it was revealed that the movie would be a feature film adaptation of Next Goal Wins. Waititi will co-write the script with Iain Morris. Garrett Basch, Jonathan Cavendish, Andy Serkis, Mike Brett, and Steve Jamison will serve as producers. The production will be a joint venture between Fox Searchlight, and The Imaginarium. Principle photography is scheduled for fall 2019.

In early October 2018, Lucasfilm announced that Waititi would be one of the directors of the upcoming Star Wars live-action streaming series The Mandalorian, which tells the story of a lone Mandalorian gunfighter in the period between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens.

Personal life
In May 2012, Waititi's wife, Chelsea Winstanley, gave birth to their first daughter. Their second daughter was born in August 2015.

In the run-up to the 2017 New Zealand general election, Waititi announced his support for Jacinda Ardern and the Labour Party.

He describes himself as a "Polynesian Jew".

Music videos

 * "Ladies of the World", Flight of the Conchords (2007)
 * "Mutha'uckas", Flight of the Conchords (2007)
 * "Leggy Blonde", Flight of the Conchords (2007)
 * "Shanks’ Pony", Age Pryor (2007)
 * "Bright Grey", The Phoenix Foundation (2007)
 * "My Imminent Demise", Luke Buda (2008)
 * "40 Years", The Phoenix Foundation (2009)
 * "World Gone Sour (The Lost Kids)", Method Man (2011)
 * "Main Attraction", Jeremy Renner (2019)

Commercials
Waititi has also been a prolific commercial director. He directed Air New Zealand's "The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made" featuring Peter Jackson and Elijah Wood as they go through where The Lord of the Rings films were shot. The commercial went viral amassing over 19 million views on YouTube. Waititi directed Tesco's "Borg" which features a comical Thor-esque character shopping in the supermarket; notably, he went on to direct Marvel Studios' Thor: Ragnarok years later.


 * "Moussaka Rap", Pot Noodle (2008)
 * "I Wish (That Girls Were More Like Pot Noodles)", Pot Noodle (2008)
 * "Back with no Appetite", Pot Noodle (2008)
 * "World Gone Sour (The Lost Kids)", Sour Patch Kids (2011)
 * "Simply The Best", Cadbury Dairy Milk (2011)
 * "Gold", Wispa (2011)
 * "Superbowl Brotherhood of Man", NBC (2012)
 * "Pure", Steinlager (2012)
 * "New Girl", Old Navy (2012)
 * "Why Choose?", Old Navy (2012)
 * "Australia Day", Lambnesia (2013)
 * "State Of The -Ation", Samsung (2013)
 * "MIDWULS", Optimum Cable (2013)
 * "Borg" Tesco (2013)
 * "Pierce Brosnan", Sky Ireland (2013)
 * "Blazed", New Zealand Transport Agency (2013)
 * "#HELLOBEER", Carlton (2013)
 * "The Kids Party", Nimble (2014)
 * "The Gas Bill", Nimble (2014)
 * "The Phone Bill", Nimble (2014)
 * "Laura", Stop Before You Start (2014)
 * "Toa", Stop Before You Start (2014)
 * "Tori", Stop Before You Start (2014)
 * "Jackson", Stop Before You Start (2014)
 * "Destiny", Stop Before You Start (2014)
 * "The Most Epic Safety Video Ever", Air New Zealand (2014)
 * "Watch It Over and Over", Nova Energy (2014)
 * "Tinnyvision", New Zealand Transport Agency (2015)
 * "Choose Your Trebor - Confessions", Trebor Mints (2015)
 * "Broadband Made Simple", 2degrees (2015)
 * "Taika's Appeal", New Zealand Human Rights Commission (2017)