In conversation with Toa Fraser

Toa Fraser is a writer, director, and producer whose work spanning plays, feature film, and series drama have earned him a formidable reputation in Hollywood. Most recently he has been working as the producing director of the Netflix hit series Sweet Tooth, shot here in Aotearoa and watched by over 60 million households around the globe. For his entire directing career, which started in 2005 in Mt Roskill, Toa Fraser has been battling Parkinson’s Disease, a degenerative brain disease for which there is no cure. During his talk he will share with us some of the challenges that arise when directing with a brain disease and how he’s worked with some of the world’s best actors, athletes, martial artists, and dancers in a quest to ‘transcend this bullshit,’ because art makes this difficult life a little easier. Toa, in conversation with Paula Whetu Jones, will discuss what it’s like directing with PD, his creative process on Sweet Tooth, and what Mana Auaha means to him. 

Read Toa’s biography here