Tihini Grant is an award-winning independent Writer/Director with over 20 years of experience in the NZ film and television industry. Raised in tribal traditions of his Ngāti Pikiao people Tihini is a keeper of traditional histories and a fluent speaker of Te Reo Māori with a commitment to indigenous stories. Collaboration is an integral part of Tihini’s creative process. He is a founding member of the Steambox Film Collective – a cabal of Māori filmmakers based in Rotorua NZ. The group formed to support development, writing, direction, production and distribution of their screen projects. In his early career Tihini wrote and directed docudrama, documentary and reality style television, He also wrote and directed Matatua for the Māori Television series Whare Taonga, which won Best Māori Language Series at the 2012 NZ Television awards. Incidentally, a second series he wrote and directed Tamaki Paenga Hira was nominated in the same category that year. Tihini moved into scripted drama with his 2015 short film Elevation, which screened in the NZ International Film Festival. His next film, Mareikura – 2019, was a collaboration with indigenous filmmakers Tristin Greyeyes (Cree Nation – Canada) and Alika Maikau (Kanaka Maoli – Hawai’i). As co-writer and director, he travelled to Toronto for the world premiere at the Imaginative Film Festival. Currently in development, Tihini has international co-production, Bi-lingual Māori/Gaelic Language period drama series’ Seal Woman and is collaborating as co-writer/co-director on contemporary Police drama Scoria. In Post Production, he also has the new drama series End of the Valley for Whakaata Māori on which he co-directed and was HOD of language and cultural expertise. Tihini Grant – Te Arawa, Ngāti Pikiao
