Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Taika Waititi
Taika David Cohen ONZM (born 16 August 1975), known professionally as Taika Waititi (/ˈtaɪkə ˈwaɪtɪti/ TY-kə WY-tee-tee), is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
His feature films Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film. Waititi's 2003 short film Two Cars, One Night earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short 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. The series has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
His 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), the last of which he also wrote and starred in as an imaginary version of Adolf Hitler. Jojo Rabbit received six Academy Award nominations and won Best Adapted Screenplay. Waititi also earned a Grammy Award for producing the film's soundtrack.
In television, Waititi co-created and produced the comedy drama series Reservation Dogs, and directed, produced, and starred in the comedy Our Flag Means Death. In addition to directing an episode of the series The Mandalorian, he voiced the character IG-11, for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance.
Taika David Cohen was born on 16 August 1975 in Wellington, and grew up in Wellington's Aro Valley suburb and Raukokore, a small town in the Bay of Plenty.
His father was an artist of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent, while his mother, Robin Cohen, was a schoolteacher of multiple ethnicities. His mother's paternal grandfather was a Russian Jew whose family came from Novozybkov, Russia. Waititi stated that his mother's family were Russian Jewish, Irish, and other European ethnicities, while his father's side was "Māori and a little bit of French Canadian". His paternal grandfather, also named Taika, served as a Māori Battalion soldier during World War II.
Identifying as both Māori and Jewish, Waititi describes himself as a "Polynesian Jew". He was raised more connected to his Māori roots, in a household where Judaism was not actively practised and identifies as an atheist who "puts more stock in indigenous beliefs."
Waititi's parents divorced when he was around five, and he was raised primarily by his mother. He attended Onslow College, then studied theatre at Victoria University of Wellington where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1997.
Hub AI
Taika Waititi AI simulator
(@Taika Waititi_simulator)
Taika Waititi
Taika David Cohen ONZM (born 16 August 1975), known professionally as Taika Waititi (/ˈtaɪkə ˈwaɪtɪti/ TY-kə WY-tee-tee), is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022.
His feature films Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film. Waititi's 2003 short film Two Cars, One Night earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short 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. The series has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.
His 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), the last of which he also wrote and starred in as an imaginary version of Adolf Hitler. Jojo Rabbit received six Academy Award nominations and won Best Adapted Screenplay. Waititi also earned a Grammy Award for producing the film's soundtrack.
In television, Waititi co-created and produced the comedy drama series Reservation Dogs, and directed, produced, and starred in the comedy Our Flag Means Death. In addition to directing an episode of the series The Mandalorian, he voiced the character IG-11, for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance.
Taika David Cohen was born on 16 August 1975 in Wellington, and grew up in Wellington's Aro Valley suburb and Raukokore, a small town in the Bay of Plenty.
His father was an artist of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent, while his mother, Robin Cohen, was a schoolteacher of multiple ethnicities. His mother's paternal grandfather was a Russian Jew whose family came from Novozybkov, Russia. Waititi stated that his mother's family were Russian Jewish, Irish, and other European ethnicities, while his father's side was "Māori and a little bit of French Canadian". His paternal grandfather, also named Taika, served as a Māori Battalion soldier during World War II.
Identifying as both Māori and Jewish, Waititi describes himself as a "Polynesian Jew". He was raised more connected to his Māori roots, in a household where Judaism was not actively practised and identifies as an atheist who "puts more stock in indigenous beliefs."
Waititi's parents divorced when he was around five, and he was raised primarily by his mother. He attended Onslow College, then studied theatre at Victoria University of Wellington where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1997.