Latest news with #ShortlandStreet
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Actor & Comedian Johanna Cosgrove's Beauty Routine Is No Joke
Fresh off the NZ International Comedy Festival circuit, Johanna Cosgrove shares how her stage makeup befits her Sweetie persona. Johanna Cosgrove is busy basking in that post-awards glow. Earlier this week, the actor, comedian and writer was awarded Director's Choice at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival for Sweetie, directed by Jess Joy Wood. It's the show Johanna has performed both in Aotearoa and across the ditch – most recently to crowds who filed into Auckland's Basement Theatre from May 13 to 17, primed with a glass of white wine and ready to laugh until they cried. They did. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Johanna Cosgrove (@johannacosgrove) There's really no excuse not to be familiar with the comedy darling. She's graced our TV screens as Jaz in Three's Madam, makes up half of the podcast Rats In The Gutter, which she co-hosts with friend and fellow creative Samuel Te Kani, she has written for Shortland Street, and exercised her penchant for performing in countless theatre productions and short films. She's wickedly funny, yes, but - as the name of her show suggests – she's a total sweetie. It's hardly surprising then that she's amassed a growing fanbase of loyalists (me included) and has teamed up with some of the most lauded female comedians, including Justine Smith, Elouise Eftos, Rhiannon McCall, Hayley Sproull, Lana Walters and Liv McKenzie for the all-female comedy show, Goblin Girls. Below, Johanna explains how her bold beauty looks help cement the vibe for her show, why she's not a subscriber to the 'clean girl' aesthetic, and how you'll never find her caught with fewer than seven lipsticks in her handbag. ASHLEIGH COMETTI: The electric blue eyeshadow and bright red lips from your Sweetie promo shoot are burned into my memory for all the right reasons. How does this bold makeup look capture the playful energy of your show? JOHANNA COSGROVE: The makeup is essential! I refuse to do stand-up comedy in anything less than a fully realised visual concept (read: full costume and full beat). When I was writing Sweetie, I knew I wanted the vibe to be hot, punk, sweaty and dangerous – I was extremely inspired by Amy from Amyl and The Sniffers, photos from Kathleen Hanna in the 90s and the photographic work of Nadia Lee Cohen. The furious feminine, if you will. Something about the clash of blue and red, the nod to Liza Minnelli in Cabaret, and the theatricality of the 80s to the brow eyeshadow had me going ding ding ding, b***h! AC: You're no stranger to bold beauty looks and are often spotted donning blue liner or bright red lipstick. What are some of your signature beauty looks, and what do you love most about them? JC: More is … more. I've always been a liquid eyeliner girl, and would go to high school with a big ole wing from an eyeliner that was $2 on Cuba St and could simply be peeled off at the end of the day (unintentional!). Red lipstick is timeless and, even though I've taken time away from her, I'm back on the bandwagon with the force of 10000 suns. I also support thick bushy dark brows, blush, lip liner, mascara and nothing else. I support glamour, I have absolutely no time for the 'clean girl' TikTok aesthetic. Sue me! JC: My auntie is a makeup artist and she once said to me, 'perfect base, perfect face,' so keeping my skin healthy is priority numero uno. Beauty should always be fun, it should make you feel cool! It should make you feel sexy and powerful! No makeup and zits out can make me feel like the hottest girl on the planet of earth and so full of self-confidence that even my hormonal acne feels like art. But sometimes I need a full glitter cut crease (hello, 2016) and my cheekbones to be contoured like cut glass to even leave my house. It's a spectrum! I will never be limited! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Johanna Cosgrove (@johannacosgrove) AC: Talk me through your daily beauty routine – both on show day and off. How are they different? JC: SHOW DAY: Every time I've tried to incorporate a 10-step skincare routine, my face has responded by turning the texture and colour of red raw meat (derogatory). So now I keep it simple – lots of moisturiser! When I'm performing every night for months on end, I'll do sheet masks for aftercare – the Garnier moisturising ones from the supermarket are a slay. You best believe I've also tried the overnight viral Korean skin care mask (they do work, but they are crazy). I'll also do a gentle exfoliate once a week, I love the Emma Lewisham Illuminating Exfoliant. I don't wear a lot of foundation, but I'll always have a lip combo on – I'll not be caught dead without at least seven lipsticks in my purse. Hair care is also important (I must protect all seven of my strands), so I use a scalp massager (also from the supermarket), HINU Hair Oil and try and minimise the amount of heat damage (velcro rollers are in – spread it). OFF DAY: Cleanser, moisturiser, bit of sunscreen and black coffee almost spilt through my sheets. AC: We all know that bright stage lights can be hot, hot, hot. How do you ensure your makeup lasts the distance and doesn't slide off while you're performing? JC: At 16, there was nothing like a full can of hairspray straight on top of your L'Oreal Dream Matte Mousse to get you through $1 Bubbles Wednesdays at Establishment on Courtenay Place. It also causes your skin to flake like a croissant. This year I knew I'd need something more sustainable to handle the rivulets of sweat streaming out of me on this tour, so instead of foundation, I opted for a K-Beauty BB cream as my base (incredible coverage and designed to be good in humidity) with a light powder between bronzer (NARS) and blush (Mecca). I also used the Charlotte Tilbury Setting Spray like a firehose as well as M.A.C Stack Waterproof Mascara and Benefit Eyeliner that did not budge. My lip was M.A.C Locked Kiss Ink 24-Hour Lip Colour, which truly does what it says on the tin. Twenty-four hours, babe! Unmoveable! Loves it! AC: What are your five favourite products of all time, and why? JC: Cosrx Snail Mucin – aside from some light, *preventative* Botox, this product is the sole reason I could feasibly play a 25-year-old in a television show in my early 30s. I'm in love with it, obsessed with it and probably addicted. Ageing forwards? Not here. Clinique Black Honey – The OG. The queen. I could be on a plane falling from the sky and I would be grabbing for my passport, my phone and my Clinique Black Honey. The subtle colour match is beautiful. She's still a bestseller for a reason. Curio Noir Perfume (Pablo) – I was given this as a gift from the showrunners when I finished shooting Madam and it's truly a perfect scent. 10/10 no notes. K18 Leave-In Molecular Mask – this really is the best. As a PCOS girl who sizzled her hair to oblivion with years of on-scalp bleaching, this product brought me back from the absolute and utter brink. Thank you, K18. M.A.C Lip Pencil in Soar – The colour? The consistency? Sublime. I am never without this lip liner. Please sponsor me, M.A.C Cosmetics. HONOURABLE MENTION: CeraVe Oil Cleanser and a flannel. You don't need anything else to get your face clean. AC: Who do you consider your muses, both in comedy and in beauty? JC: In comedy, Cat Cohen, Joan Rivers, Natasha Leggero, Julia Davis, Samuel Te Kani, the New Zealand comedy industry. In beauty, Amy from Amyl and the Sniffers, Blondie, Kathleen Hanna, emo girls on Myspace, Nadia Lee Cohen, beauty influencer Not Another Hanna, Cher, any actress on Broadway from 1976-98, the movie Showgirls, and drag queens Trixie and Katya. AC: Do you follow beauty trends? Or do you prefer to stick to what you know and love? JC: I like to look for trends for inspiration, but ultimately I'll happily reject them and do whatever I wish. AC: What's the funniest beauty advice you've ever received? JC: 'Underline your lips so they don't look so big' - girl … wot. AC: What's your biggest beauty regret? JC: Following the above advice. St Yves Scrub. Not getting into sunscreen until it was borderline too late. Not moisturising – dial 111! AC: Beauty is... JC: Vital! More beauty From the hottest runway trends to try now to the local beauty brand founder making waves globally. Our 2025 Beauty Trend Predictions Came True At Australian Fashion Week. From wine-stained lips to skincare-as-makeup, here are the top trends beauty editor Ashleigh Cometti spotted at AFW. 8 Of The Best Keratosis Pilaris Treatments To Try In 2025. Skin feeling rough, textured or bumpy? Here's how to manage keratosis pilaris this winter. Viva Beauty Awards 2025: Discover The Finalists & Vote For Your Favourites Now. Our expert judges have decided the finalists across all 30 categories, now it's over to you to crown the winners. . Beauty entrepreneur Katey Mandy continues to push the boundaries of botanicals with New Zealand skincare brand, Raaie.
NZ Herald
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Tama Jarman stars in Red Leap Theatre's crime thriller ‘Wrest' in Whangārei
The murder at the bus stop relates to the 'death' of the person she was before becoming a parent. The cast includes Tama Jarman, 38, who lived in Whangārei from the age of 5 until 20. After attending Whangārei Boys' High School, where he took drama, he wound up at South Seas Film and Television School in Auckland, from where his career flourished. 'I was working at Killer Prawn for a while after I left school and, after work, we'd head across the road to Bacio, which was owned by Des Wallace who'd done a bit of acting. 'I used to be a bit of a break dancer and I'd show my moves off and one day he said, 'What are you going to do Tama?' He'd gone to South Seas and had success as an actor from it and then bought the bar so I decided to give it a go – Des started it all!' Jarman has been working as a freelance actor since, with TV stints including Shortland Street and Westside, multiple ads and loads of theatre. He has been involved with Red Theatre since its inception in 2008 and undertaken many roles. In Wrest his main role is as a detective. Wrest came about when acclaimed performing artists and Kiwi mums Ella Becroft and Tor Colombus decided to combine their two worlds to create a new theatre show which explores motherhood's hidden darker side. The crime thriller is centred on a missing woman and a doppelganger with the unfolding mystery laying bare the mundane and sometimes monstrous reality of early motherhood. When the original woman mysteriously disappears, an uncanny doppelganger emerges. Stalked by detectives seeking answers, the doppelganger hunts visions of her original self, determined to rebuild. Becroft, who also directs the show, explains: 'When having a baby, women are expected to transition with ease – to transform into a completely new self that can seem at odds with who they know themselves to be. I felt like I became a stranger, a doppelganger of my child-free self. 'What we have come to accept as 'normal' birth can be deeply disturbing for many women. The transformative experience of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood doesn't match pervasive cultural narratives.' The project combines the cast and creative teams' personal experiences of pregnancy, birth, and motherhood with scientific, medical, and psychological insights to illuminate this often hidden experience. The main piece of text used as inspiration for the show was the book Matrescence by Lucy Jones. Jones, a scientific writer, has pieced together science, medicine and psychology in her book to explain what a woman experiences. From there, the team further researched processes and changes. Colombus, who is also the choreographer, says: 'In the rehearsal room for Wrest, there were moments where a parent would tell a story about the unexpected struggle of motherhood, the moments of rage, and the physical pain of it, that they had never spoken out loud before". 'There is a power to a woman sharing her authentic experience, and we hope this show will empower others to do the same.' The show encourages audiences to re-evaluate their perceptions of motherhood and to support women in their journeys. Jarman describes it as a dark and moody surreal crime thriller using devised physical theatre. 'We're given a rough story outline so we had a thread to follow. We've got a setting, now we've just got to build the story and physicalise what happens,' he explains. 'There's bones and we create the body and the flesh. For example, we might be asked to show five ways you could disappear into a portal. Then we all piece together the moments of gold amongst the many, many bad moments.' Although he returns to Whangārei often to visit family and has brought shows there in the past, he's looking forward to performing there next week. 'I'm just stoked to be doing what I do in my hometown. I'm excited to bring it up there and get some of my mates that are still there along and hopefully parents have a moment where they feel heard.' He equates Wrest with a David Lynch film and says audiences can expect excitement, tension, along with some dark moments among a well-constructed story. 'It's quite mysterious but when you do work it out, it's very satisfying so hopefully the audience has a satisfying experience.' Wrest runs from May 29-31 at 7.30pm-8.30pm in OneOneSix Bank St, followed by shows in Auckland in June. Tickets from Eventfinda.
The Spinoff
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
‘Freaking obsessed': Josh McKenzie on meeting his 90s child star crush
Josh McKenzie, local star of The Hunting Party, Filthy Rich and La Brea, shares his life in television. Like almost every New Zealand actor who has made it into a big snazzy international TV show, Josh McKenzie cut his teeth on Shortland Street long before he starred in enormous American productions like La Brea and The Hunting Party. Playing the role of executive assistant Nate, McKenzie says the soap opera was 'one hell of a training ground' for a young actor. 'You learn how to deliver dialogue at pace with one or two takes convincingly, and you've just got to be pumping constantly – otherwise you look like an idiot,' he laughs. It's this stamina and work ethic that he says sets New Zealanders apart in the international industry, and came in very handy on the set of The Hunting Party. In the fast-paced procedural, in which a task force is assembled to hunt escaped serial killers after an explosion at a top secret prison facility, McKenzie plays former soldier and prison guard Shane Florence. 'It's a very fast turnaround show, but still nowhere near as fast as Shortland Street,' he says. 'Honestly, after you do Shortland Street, everything else feels like a luxury.' And while he acknowledges procedural shows might not be 'hip' at the moment, McKenzie says they always have a place in his watchlist. 'I'm a real sucker for any kind of procedural – killer of the week, crime of the week, medical case of the week. They're all nice little comfort watches for me.' Auspiciously, he was deep into rewatching House when he got the call to join The Hunting Party. 'It's a very different backdrop, but a similar format – you've got the central unit of people who are trying to solve a problem, and everyone fills an archetype.' The first episode of The Hunting Party opens with its gigantic, secret citadel blowing up in the middle of nowhere, and McKenzie still remembers how it felt to be there. 'It's kind of like stepping into a theme park,' he says. 'You're on your first day on set and there's the ruins of a giant top secret prison right there. That feeling never really gets old for me, where that inner child wakes up and just wants to run around and have fun.' And while we are channeling childhood, we then asked McKenzie to take us through his life in television. My earliest TV memory is… I was so freaking obsessed with McDonald's Young Entertainers that I wrote a handwritten letter to Drew Ne'emia. McDonald's Young Entertainers really awoke something in me, it was like our version of the Disney Kids. The show I would rush home from school to watch is… Malcolm in the Middle was my big after school show, which I've also started rewatching again recently. It really holds up and you can see how much of a genius Bryan Cranston was. He's actually incredible. My first TV crush was… I would honestly probably have to say Drew Ne'emia. I served him a drink when I was working at Lone Star and I was about to say, 'hey, man, I wrote you a letter when I was seven' but I didn't. My first time on screen was… I played like a handless skeleton in a Halloween special for Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. I got to choose my costume and I wanted the skeleton, but he was missing one of the gloves. They were like 'can you choose something else' and I was like 'no, I want to be the skeleton'. So that's how I was a handless skeleton on Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. My TV guilty pleasure is… My partner is obsessed with Shahs of Sunset, which is a show about some of the worst people. I was building some Ikea furniture and watching it with her, and then I found myself being totally engrossed by the episode. My favourite NZ TV ad is… My little sister was in the Milky Bar ad where Jemaine Clement played the bad guy with a moustache. It was set in a saloon with all the little kids playing the hokey typical roles in a Western. She played the saloon girl, and I vividly remember remembering visiting on set when she was doing that. My favourite TV character of all time is… What Anthony Starr did in Outrageous Fortune with Jethro and Vann made a huge impression on me as a budding young actor, so those twins are definitely up there as some of my favourites. I also love Ted Danson's character in Cheers, Robin Wright's character in House of Cards, Gillian Anderson in The Fall is fucking epic. The TV project I wish I could be involved in is… The Sopranos or The Wire – every character has something going on. I'm also a video game fan, so The Last of Us would also be a dream. A show that I'll never watch, no matter how many people say I should is… I won't watch TV shows on Tiktok. I just can't. It hurts my soul. And I'm sure it's the future of how we're going to digest media, but I just can't bring myself to do it. My friend always sends me these these micro soaps, three minute long episodes, and they are all so bad. It's always the richest man in the world, but his wife is cheating on him, but she's actually richer than him. All these terrible setups and they just churn them out. The last thing I watched on television was… I watched the latest episode of The Last of Us and the last episode of The Pitt, both in the same night.
Scoop
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
Full Cast Announced For William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet By Auckland Theatre Company
The greatest love story of all time, William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet, presented as a fast-paced thriller, comes to the ASB Waterfront Theatre from 15 July – 9 August. Reimagined in the 1960s, a decade of love, and a period defined by romance, this timeless masterpiece speaks to the rebellion of youth and female liberation and brims with passion, unravelling at breathtaking speed while Death lurks in every corner. Making their Auckland Theatre Company debut, Theo Dāvid (Shortland Street) and Phoebe McKellar (One Lane Bridge) will star as the ill-fated lovers, Romeo and Juliet. 'Phoebe has a fragility coupled with a fire and Theo has an enchanting warmth, coupled with a devilish twinkle in the eye,' says Director Benjamin Kilby-Henson (The Effect, King Lear). 'The text describes their relationship as flint and gunpowder, when they come together - KABOOM. They are the perfect combo for Shakespeare's most head-strong, vibrant and zealous young couple.' Joining Dāvid and McKellar is Ryan Carter as Mercutio, Liam Coleman as Benvolio, Jesme Fa'auuga as Tybalt, Courtney Eggleton as Nurse, Miriama McDowell as Friar Lawrence, Beatriz Romilly as Lady Capulet, Meramanji Odedra as Montague, Jordan Mooney as Paris, Isla Mayo as Sampson and Amanda Tito as Death/Prince/Petra/Apothecary. 'This is Shakespeare's ode to love of all kinds', says Kilby-Henson, 'Romantic love, sexual love, the love between friends and family, love through faith.' With an original cinematic score by Composer Robin Kelly and a Milan-inspired '60's fashion aesthetic by Daniel Williams and Daniella Salazar, this must-see production ignites one of literature's most enduring stories with intensity and style. This July, Romeo & Juliet warns 'these violent delights have violent ends'. With a brilliant cast and visionary creative team this star-crossed tragedy celebrates the triumph of love over hate – but at what cost? For tickets and further information, visit 15 July - 9 August 2025 ASB Waterfront Theatre Direction: Benjamin Kilby-Henson Production Design, Set & Costume: Daniel Williams Production Design, Lighting: Filament Eleven 11 Rachel Marlow & Bradley Gledhill Production Design, Costume: Daniella Salazar Composition & Sound Design: Robin Kelly Vocal Direction: Cherie Moore Movement Direction & Engine Room Assistant Director: Katrina George Duration: 2 hours, including interval
RNZ News
15-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Turbulent time in film and television industry
Students and industry experts on the ever changing television, film and advertising landscape in Aotearoa say it's rough out there but there is a lot of opportunity. With advertising budgets getting smaller, 100 percent tariffs slapped on non-US made films and uncertainty brewing for Shortland Street - it's a turbulent time in the industry. Louise Ternouth reports. Tags: To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
