Taika Waititi

Taika Waititi Bio

Taika David Cohen, born 16 August 1975, and known professionally as Taika Waititi, is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He has received an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2022. His feature films Boy and Hunt for the Wilderpeople have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film on release, and his 2003 short film Two Cars, One Night earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film.

Early Life and Background

Taika David Cohen was born on 16 August 1975 in Wellington, New Zealand, and grew up in the Aro Valley suburb of Wellington as well as 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 maternal family included Russian Jewish, Irish, and other European roots, and his father was of Māori and French Canadian heritage. His paternal grandfather, also named Taika, served as a Māori Battalion soldier during World War II.

Identifying as both Māori and Jewish, Waititi has described himself as a “Polynesian Jew.” He was raised more connected to his Māori roots, in a household where Judaism was not actively practised, and he has identified as an atheist who puts more stock in indigenous beliefs. His parents divorced when he was around five, and he was raised primarily by his mother. He attended Onslow College and later studied theatre at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1997.

Although his legal surname is Cohen, Waititi has been known primarily by his father’s surname for most of his life. He originally used Cohen for his work in film and writing, and Waititi for visual arts. Following the success of his first short film, he continued to use Waititi professionally.

Path to Directing

While a student at Victoria University of Wellington, Waititi joined the five-member comedy ensemble So You’re a Man, which toured New Zealand and Australia with some success. He and Jemaine Clement, performing as the comedy duo The Humourbeasts, received New Zealand’s highest comedy accolade, the Billy T Award, in 1999. That same year, under the surname Cohen, he appeared in the black comedy film Scarfies. He also began making short films for New Zealand’s annual 48Hours film contest, which helped sharpen his directing voice.

Waititi directed the short film Two Cars, One Night in 2003, following two young boys and a girl who meet in the carpark of a rural pub in Te Kaha, New Zealand. The short earned acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2005. His first feature, the romantic comedy Eagle vs Shark, was released in the United States in limited distribution in 2007, and he co-wrote it with Loren Horsley. That same year, he wrote and directed an episode of the television show Flight of the Conchords and directed another, marking his early move between film and television work.

Taika Waititi Career

Early Career (1999–2011)

After Two Cars, One Night brought him international attention, Waititi expanded into features and television. His second feature, Boy, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010 and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Waititi also took one of the main roles, playing the ex-con father who returns to his family. On its New Zealand release, Boy received enthusiastic reviews and broke several local box-office records.

In 2011, Waititi directed the New Zealand television series Super City starring Madeleine Sami, and that year he portrayed Thomas Kalmaku in the superhero feature film Green Lantern. These projects established him as a versatile creator comfortable in both independent and studio environments.

Breakthrough (2013–2019)

In 2013, Waititi co-wrote, co-directed, and acted in the vampire comedy mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows with Jemaine Clement. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, and Waititi and Clement played members of a group of vampires living in a gothic house in modern-day Wellington. A television adaptation was commissioned in May 2018, with Waititi serving as executive producer and director, and the series premiered on FX in March 2019.

Waititi’s fourth feature, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The comedy adventure centres on a young boy, played by Julian Dennison, and a grumpy man, played by Sam Neill, on the run in the New Zealand wilderness. The film broke Waititi’s own record for a New Zealand opening weekend. That same year, he wrote the initial screenplay for the Disney film Moana, focusing on gender and family elements that were later revised in the final story.

In 2017, Waititi won the award for New Zealander of the Year and directed his first major studio film, Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok, released in October. He also portrayed the alien Korg via motion capture, and directed the Team Thor short film series. In 2019, he wrote and directed Jojo Rabbit, based on the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens, and played a buffoonish version of Adolf Hitler as the boy’s imaginary friend. He also directed the first-season finale of The Mandalorian and voiced the droid bounty hunter IG-11.

Notable Works and Milestones

Waititi’s signature works include Thor: Ragnarok, Jojo Rabbit, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and What We Do in the Shadows. Jojo Rabbit received six Academy Award nominations and won Best Adapted Screenplay, making Waititi the first person of Māori descent to win an Academy Award in a screenplay category and the first indigenous person to win Best Adapted Screenplay. He also won a Grammy Award for producing the Jojo Rabbit soundtrack and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for The Mandalorian.

Taika Waititi Award Nominations

Taika Waititi has received nominations across major film, television, and music awards. He earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film in 2005 for Two Cars, One Night, and two Academy Award nominations for Jojo Rabbit in 2020, including Best Picture. He also received Golden Globe Award, Directors Guild of America Award, and Writers Guild of America Award nominations, as well as Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance.

Taika Waititi Awards Won

Waititi has won an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and the Billy T Award. He won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit, and received a Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media as a producer of the Jojo Rabbit soundtrack. In 2020, he was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to film.

Taika Waititi Family

Waititi was raised primarily by his mother, schoolteacher Robin Cohen, after his parents divorced when he was around five. His father, an artist of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent, was also named Taika and served as a Māori Battalion soldier during World War II. His cousin Tweedie Waititi, whom he considers a sibling, has produced and directed Māori language versions of Disney animated films.

Personal Life

Waititi was in a long-term relationship with New Zealand actress and writer Loren Horsley, who co-wrote and acted in Eagle vs Shark. He later met New Zealand film producer Chelsea Winstanley in 2010, and they married in 2011 and have two daughters before separating in 2018. He has been in a relationship with British singer Rita Ora since 2021, and they married in August 2022.