Rena Owen

Rena Owen is an international award-winning actress, and one of only six in the world and the only female to date to have worked with both filmmaking legends George Lucas and Steven Spielberg during her illustrious career that spans 35 years working in theater, television, film and voice work. One of nine children, born and bred in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand (NZ) to a Maori/Welsh father and a European mother, Rena was first published at age eight when she won a national children's poetry contest. Throughout her youth she was active in the Maori Culture Club, high school musical productions, and community theater events. Despite knowing her talents laid in creativity, the arts were not considered a viable career. At 18, she moved to Auckland to pursue a nursing career, and qualified as a general and obstetric nurse (SRN). In 1983 she went on her overseas experience, a common Kiwi pursuit and landed in London. Awed by the huge city and the bright lights of the entertainment world, the temptations that came with it easily seduced the naive 22-year-old but this life changing period led her back to a creative career. Rena trained at the Actors Institute of London in the mid-1980s. During her formative years she worked in all aspects of theater. The first play she wrote, The River That Ran Away, was produced by Clean Break and directed by her mentor, award-winning British actress Ann Mitchell, with Rena in the lead role. It enjoyed a successful London tour and was later published by NZ Playmarket (1991). Other UK highlights include Voices from Prison with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the award-winning Outside In, which debuted at the Edinburgh Festival. Upon her return to NZ in 1989 Rena acted in two one-hour dramas for Television NZ's series, E Tipu, E Rea. A first of its kind, the series was written, acted, directed and produced by Maori people. In constant pursuit of learning and honing her craft, she continued to work extensively in theatre acting, writing, directing and working as a playwright. Rena was a founding member of the reputable Taki Rua Theatre Company. She wrote and recorded short stories for Radio NZ, wrote and starred in the critically acclaimed stage play Daddy's Girl whilst playing reoccurring roles on NZ TV series Betty's Bunch and Shark in the Park. Rena was a rare recipient of a Dame Te Atairangikaahu (the NZ Maori Queen) Literary Award and Scholarship in 1991. The Kevin Reynolds/Kevin Costner film Rapa Nui in 1993 was her first film role followed by the leading role in the cult classic NZ film Once Were Warriors. Her electrifying performance garnered her universal rave reviews. David Denby declared, "Owen's performance is classic!" Roger Ebert proclaimed, "You don't often see acting like this in the movies. The two leads bring the Academy Awards into perspective." Ruby Rich called her "The Bette Davis from Down Under" while Thelma Adams wrote, "Owen has the looks of Jeanne Moreau, the raw emotional power of Anna Magnani & a slim athleticism all her own". Once Were Warriors was voted one of Time Magazine's top 10 films in 1994. It garnered over 30 international awards and screened in 66 countries. Rena won Best Actress awards at the Montreal, Oporto, Seattle, San Diego Film Festivals & the Cannes Film Festival's Spirit Award. While in NZ she was awarded the Benny Award for Excellence in Film and the Toastmasters Communicator of the Year Award. She returned to the Theater to act in Stephen Berkoff's plays East West and Kvetch. Rena earned a Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in the NZ TV series Coverstory, was a series regular in the Australian Network 10 TV drama Adrenalin Junkies from 1996-98, played a leading role in Garth Maxwell's When Love Comes and a supporting role in Rolf De Heer's critically acclaimed Dance Me To My Song that was in competition at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival and earned her an Australian Film Institute (AFI) Best Supporting Actress nomination. In 2000, Rena set up a base in Los Angeles. She played beloved Taun We in George Lucas's Star Wars: Attack of the Clones followed by a cameo role in Steven Spielberg's Artificial Intelligence (A.I). She guest starred on Gideon's Crossing & played a reoccurring role in WB's Angel. Lucas cast her again as Nee Alavar in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. She went on to play supporting & cameo roles in multiple international films. Highlights include An All American Girl, Veronica Decides To Die, Nemesis Game, Alyce Kills, Vincent Ward's acclaimed Rain Of The Children and A Piece Of My Heart. During 2010-2020, Rena played a 3 month role on NZ's longest running TV series, Shortland Street, and won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the 2011 Aotearoa Film & Television Awards (AFTA). A reoccurring role in the award-winning Australian TV series East West 101 earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Australian Academy of Cinema & Television Arts and a Best Actress nomination at the Monte Carlo International Television Festival in 2012. Cast as a series regular, Rena played the matriarch opposite Brian Cox's patriarch of a multi-ethnic crime family set in the Torres Strait Islands, Australia for an ABC TV series fondly nicknamed 'The Sopranos in thongs!' The Hollywood Reporter voted The Straits as one of the top 10 TV series to binge watch in 2013. Once Were Warriors, the film that launched her international career was voted the number one film of all time in NZ in 2014. Rena starred in a NZ documentary celebrating the film's 20th anniversary called Where Are They Now? Rena played a supporting role in the New Zealand film The Dead Lands which enjoyed a Special Presentation Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, garnered rave reviews, and sold to multiple territories. In the USA she played a supporting role in the indie film The Well, recurring roles for A&E's TV series Longmire and Sundance's TV series The Red Road, the coveted role of Glaeser in Vin Diesel's movie The Last Witch Hunter directed by Breck Eisner, and the ghostly villain in the indie film Without a Body. Rena was cast as a series regular in Freeform's hit TV series Siren which enjoyed 3 seasons during 2016-2019. During the hiatus she played a military major in the Australian film Escape & Evasion, was a series regular in Stan Australia, and ABC's mini series The Gloaming, and played the recurring role of Heveena in Seth MacFarlane's TV series The Orville. During the coronavirus lock-down, Rena played the lead in Whina, a NZ film to be released in 2022, a supporting role on the NZ TV series VegasNZ, and also renewed her Star Wars role as Taun We in the Bad Batch. In 2021, she completed work on season 3 of The Orville, and was thrilled to be cast as Sarge in Netflix's animated series Super Giant Robot Brothers (2022). Throughout her remarkable career besides television and film, Rena continues to work in theater globally, and has served on multiple international film festival juries. She also enjoys being a mentor and public speaker when time permits. Her motto is "Love what you do and do it to the very best of your ability!"