Who is Katie Wolfe?
Katie Wolfe (Ngāti Tama, Ngāti Mutunga) is one of New Zealand’s most compelling storytellers working across film, theatre and television, through both character-driven drama and bold documentary. Katie creates work that invites audiences to sit with lived experience, emotion, truth and healing.
Her work creates space for difficult histories without sanitising complexity and gives audiences a mirror for social and cultural divides while fostering empathy and reflection. Her work often refrains mainstream stories through a Māori lens.
What would you do differently from what you do now?
I am so over emails and zoom calls and all that goes with that. I am so close to being the person who walks over and throws my laptop out the window, like a character in the opening sequence of a romcom. It would be a film about a woman who throws it all in and goes and lives in Tuscany somewhere and reconnects with herself… I think that’s already been done.
Who inspires you and why?
I’m very inspired by the theatre I have been seeing recently in London. I have seen some incredible theatricians at the top of their game doing inspiring presentations with exciting new writing. Let’s just say; that I pack my kete, my little bag, with lots of really great ideas before I wing my way back down to the bottom of the world.
What would you do to make a difference in the world?
I do have a very grand vision to create an arts centre in my home town: New Plymouth, Taranaki, New Zealand. There is an abandoned prison built in the nineteenth century by the British Crown’s military presence. It now sits empty and my vision is to rehabilitate it into an arts centre surrounded by community gardens.
Favourite holiday destination and why?
I have really enjoyed my recent time in London, though not a great fan of the heat wave. I really enjoy spending time there, I’ve got a lot of friends and I enjoy meeting a lot of new people. I always feel really rejuvenated by getting out amongst it.
When friends come to town, what attraction would you take them to, and why?
I live in a very niche arts precinct in New Plymouth, it’s only a couple of blocks, but filled with the incredible Len Lye Centre, the famous White Hart hotel and incredible eateries. It is only a few steps from a magnificent West Coast walkway, black sand, volcanic rocks, it really is quite something.
What are you currently reading?
Next week I’ll be reading the posthumously published novel The Ordinary People Like Us by the late, great Kelly Ana Morey. A dear friend of mine, who we will gather and celebrate her and her last great novel.
What are you currently listening to?
I seem to be in a bit of a 90s throwback phase at the moment, remembering when I was in my 20s, so popping up on Spotify playlist is a lot of the Free Radicals, Massive Attack, Portishead, Mazzy Starr, Radiohead.
Happiness is?
Happiness is very easy to fake so I guess my warning is be careful what you fake for. But for me whenever I walk in the door of a theatre and I’m about to create a new work in a new space I feel absolutely at home.
What does the future hold for you?
Brisbane marks the beginning of international touring for Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking. We are looking forward to Sydney and Edinburgh next year, as well as national touring back home in Aotearoa. I am shooting a new film AROHA next year and developing a stage adaptation of the film Mārama, which we hope to premiere in Auckland and then London.
Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking is about to be published in print form. And hopefully more gallivanting around overseas, where I hope to find myself with my inbox cleared, having a wine down on Portobello Rd.
Katie is the Director & Writer of Tiri: Te Araroa Woman Far Walking – which will be presented at the Powerhouse Theatre – Brisbane Powerhouse, as part of the Brisbane Festival, from 10 – 13 September 2026. For more information, visit: www.brisbanefestival.com.au for details.
Image: Katie Wolfe (supplied)