Beryl Te Wiata

Beryl Te Wiata was a New Zealand actor who also wrote as an author and scriptwriter. Born in Christchurch in 1925, she trained in London at the Central School of Speech and Drama between 1949 and 1950. Her films included the mystery horror Strange Behavior (1981), Mesmerized (1985), Constance in 1984 and the 1993 biopic Bread & Roses. On television she had roles in Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, plus Shortland Street, Mercy Peak and Outrageous Fortune, and she sat on the panel of New Zealand's version of the advice show Beauty and the Beast, presented by Selwyn Toogood. In the early 1980s she wrote most of the sketches and appeared in a pair of one-woman stage shows, among them Mrs. Kiwi Arthur presents. She also wrote a 1976 biography of the opera singer Inia Te Wiata and his entry in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. She died in 2017.