Taika David Cohen ONZM popularly known as Taika Waititi is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian.
While a student at Victoria University, Waititi was part of the five-member comedy 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’s 2003 short film Two Cars, One Night earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film.
He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards.
His feature films Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film.
He co-wrote, co-directed and starred in the horror-comedy film What We Do in the Shadows (2014) with Jemaine Clement, which was adapted into a television series of the same name in 2019.
Waititi’s most recent directing credits include the superhero films Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) as well as the black comedy film Jojo Rabbit (2019).
Taika Waititi Wife: Who Is Chelsea Winstanley?
Chelsea Winstanley is highly known as the ex-wife of Taika Waititi.
Chelsea Winstanley ONZM is a New Zealand film producer.
Born in 1976, Winstanley has Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāi Te Rangi ancestry through her mother.
She produces short films and documentaries which celebrate Indigenous peoples.
Winstanley has produced short films such as Meathead, Ebony Society and Night Shift.
In 2014, she co-produced What We Do in the Shadows with Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. She also co-produced Te Whakarauora Tangata and a documentary about Merata Mita.
She won the 2014 SPADA Screen Industry Awards Independent Producer of the Year.
In 2015, Winstanley was the New Zealand Women in Film and Television’s Mana Wahine recipient at Wairoa’s Maori Film Festival.
She directed the documentary Toi Tū Toi Ora in 2020.
In the 2022 Queen’s Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours, Winstanley was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the screen industry and Māori.
Chelsea Winstanley and New Zealand director Taika Waititi married in 2011.
However, the pair divorced in 2018.
Chelsea and Waititi share two children Matewa Kiritapu and Te Hinekāhu.
Winstanley has a son, Maia from a previous relationship.