Rose Matafeo

Rose Catherine Lettitia Matafeo[3] (/ˌmætəˈfeɪoʊ/; born 25 February 1992)[1] is a New Zealand comedian, actress, and TV presenter. She was a writer and performer on the NZ late-night comedy sketch show Funny Girls.[4]

Rose Matafeo
Born
Rose Catherine Lettitia Matafeo

(1992-02-25) 25 February 1992[1]
Auckland, New Zealand[2]
NationalityNew Zealander
OccupationComedian, actress, television presenter
Years active2007–present

Early life

Matafeo grew up in Auckland, New Zealand and attended Auckland Girls' Grammar School, where she was head girl. She has two older brothers.[5] Her father is Samoan and her mother is of Scottish and Croatian heritage.[4][6] Her parents are Rastafarians and Matafeo has described her upbringing as "quite relaxed".[7][8]

At the age of 15, Matafeo started doing stand-up comedy through the platform of the "Class Comedians" programme put on by the New Zealand Comedy Trust, and went on to win the "Nailed It on the Night" award at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival in 2007. She's been a regular at the festival since.[9]

Career

Since graduating from the "Class Comedians" programme, Matafeo went on to win best newcomer at the 2010 New Zealand International Comedy Festival.[9] She became a host of the popular comedy festival show "Fanfiction Comedy"[10] in 2012. She has had success with her solo stand-up comedy shows at the festival: Life Lessons I've Learnt from the 60s Based on Things I've Seen on Television (2011), Scout's Honour (2012) and The Rose Matafeo Variety Hour (2013).

Matafeo won the Billy T Award, which recognises the potential of up-and-coming New Zealand comedians, for The Rose Matafeo Variety Hour in 2013, having previously been nominated for her show Scout's Honour in 2012.[6][11][12] Her 2014 show at the festival was titled Pizza Party.[13] In 2015 she performed a duo show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with Guy Montgomery titled Rose Matafeo and Guy Montgomery Are Friends.[14] On 25 August 2018, Matafeo won the Edinburgh Comedy Award 2018 for Best Show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, for her show Horndog,[15] collecting a £10,000 prize.[16] She was the first person of colour to win the prestigious award for a solo show,[17] and the first New Zealander.[18] Only four other female solo stand-up comedians had won the award before her.[17]

She was a TV presenter and host of U Live, which ran on the TVNZ U channel from 13 March 2011 until 31 August 2013, when the channel came to an end. Upon TVNZ U finishing, she took on a new role as a writer for Jono and Ben at Ten, a satirical news and comedy sketch show.[19] Matafeo co-created and starred in the New Zealand sketch comedy show Funny Girls for three seasons from 2015 until 2018.[20] She has been playing the role of Talia in the ABC comedy Squinters since 2018.[21]

Matafeo appeared on Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier as an investigator into worrisome topics, she appeared with Richardson, in 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown (S19 Ep1) for channel 4 TV in January 2020.[22] She was a contestant on the ninth series of Taskmaster.

Having toured as a stand-up comedian for ten years, Matafeo said in 2018 that she wanted to "take a break from hour long comedy" and instead act more, write more, and also direct.[23] Matafeo went on to serve as director on five episodes of the 2019 New Zealand TV comedy Golden Boy.[24]

In August 2019, HBO Max and BBC Three announced they had ordered a scripted comedy created by, written by and starring Matafeo. Entitled Starstruck, the show will be broadcast by BBC Three in the UK and be available for streaming on HBO Max.[25]

Matafeo had her US television debut as a comedian on Conan O'Brien's talk show Conan on TBS on 9 May 2019.[26]

In 2019, Matafeo appeared on Josh Widdicombe's show Hypothetical on Dave.

She currently hosts the podcast Boners of the Heart with comedian and writer Alice Snedden on the Little Empire Podcast Network.[27] She was a guest on Deborah Frances-White's The Guilty Feminist podcast[28] and on the RHLSTP podcast with Richard Herring.[29]

In 2019, Matafeo tried her hand at directing for the first time and directed a couple of episodes in the first season of a New Zealand sitcom called Golden Boy for TV3. In 2020 she returned to the set of Golden Boy in the second season as one of the supporting cast.

On 21 August 2020, Matafeo's comedy special Horndog was released on HBO Max.[30]

In March 2019, it was announced that Matafeo had been cast as the lead in her first feature film, Baby Done.[31] Her co-star is Matthew Lewis, who played Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter film series. The comedy film is executive-produced by Thor: Ragnarok and Hunt for the Wilderpeople director Taika Waititi[32] and was released in 2020.[31]

Personal life

Matafeo partly lives in London; when she first moved to the UK in 2015, she shared a flat with comedian Nish Kumar in Shepherd's Bush for a while before moving in with her then-boyfriend, James Acaster.[4][33] Comedian Richard Herring was living in a house behind theirs at the time.[29]

Matafeo was previously in a relationship with comedian James Acaster from 2014 to 2017,[34][35] which she references in her HBO Max special, Horndog.

Matafeo is a fan of Burt Bacharach and named her cat "Bert Bachacat" after him.[29]

Matafeo is a supporter of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and was scheduled to host their campaign launch for the 2020 general election, but was later asked to step down from the role.[36]

Filmography

Film
Year Title Role Notes
2018 The Breaker Upperers Checkout chick
2020 Baby Done Zoe Lead actress

Television
Year Title Role Notes
2013–2014 Auckland Daze Rose 2 episodes
2013 Best Bits Self Guest panelist
2015–2018 Funny Girls Rose Main cast
2017 W1A Chloe 2 episodes
2017 The Barefoot Bandits Gelatina Voice role, 1 episode
2018–2019 Squinters Talia Main cast
2019 Hypothetical Self Episode 2
2019 Taskmaster Self Series 9 contestant
2020 Horndog Self Comedy special
2020 Golden Boy Ruth Also director

References
  1. Rose Matafeo - My World on Fresh. Fresh TV. 31 March 2013. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
  2. Salter, Caitlin. "Enter Stage Left: Rose Matafeo". The Southland Times. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  3. "Current details". Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  4. Logan, Brian (3 August 2017). "Comic Rose Matafeo: 'I definitely probably have a moderate amount of talent'". The Guardian.
  5. "A day in the life of Rose Matafeo". Stuff. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  6. Robinson, Michelle (13 April 2014). "Rose Matafeo - the thorn within". Stuff.co.nz. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  7. "Rose Matafeo". Private Parts Podcast. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  8. Bruce, Greg (2016-05-14). "Rose Matafeo on the highs and lows of stand-up comedy". ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  9. "Biography at Johnson&Laird" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  10. Barry Hill, Rebecca (16 April 2012). "Why making it as a comedian goes beyond a joke". The New Zealand Herald.
  11. "The Billy T Award Nominees announced for 2013". 18 October 2012.
  12. Beresford, Jessica (20 May 2013). "Rose Matafeo takes out Billy T award". TVNZ One News.
  13. "Rose Matafeo - Pizza Party". Archived from the original on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
  14. "Rose Matafeo and Guy Montgomery Are Friends". Edinburgh Festival. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  15. Premier. "2018 Winners - Edinburgh Comedy Awards". Edinburgh Comedy Awards. Retrieved 2018-09-28.
  16. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/aug/25/rose-matafeo-wins-edinburgh-best-comedy-show-award
  17. Logan, Brian (2018-08-25). "Edinburgh award champ Rose Matafeo's Horndog is a comedy smash". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  18. "Rose Matafeo wins Best Comedy Show at Edinburgh comedy festival". Stuff. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  19. "Comedian leaves TVNZ U for Jono and Ben at 10". The New Zealand Herald. 13 July 2013.
  20. "Funny Girls, Television Series, 2015-2018". www.nzonscreen.com. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  21. Knox, David (7 February 2018). "Squinters". TV Tonight.
  22. "8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown - All 4". www.channel4.com. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
  23. "Why Rose Matafeo won't be doing NZ stand-up comedy any time soon". Stuff. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  24. "Edinburgh Festival: How Rose Matafeo went from teen star to awards". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  25. White, Peter (2019-08-12). "HBO Max & BBC Three Team On Rose Matafeo's Millennial Comedy 'Starstruck' From 'Catastrophe' Producer Avalon Television". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-10-19.
  26. Rose Matafeo: It’s A Tough Year To Be A Straight Woman - CONAN on TBS, 2019-05-09, retrieved 2019-10-19
  27. "Boners Of The Heart". Little Empire Podcast Network.
  28. "The Guilty Feminist: 112. Instincts with Rose Matafeo". guiltyfeminist.libsyn.com. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  29. Rose Matafeo - Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast #191, retrieved 2019-10-20
  30. "my special Horndog is now out on @hbomax". Twitter. 21 August 2020. Retrieved 2020-08-21.
  31. "Kiwi comedian Rose Matafeo to star in first feature film". Stuff. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  32. Tartaglione, Nancy (2019-03-04). "Taika Waititi Exec Producing 'Baby, Done'; Comedy Stars Rose Matafeo, Matthew Lewis". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  33. "Rose Matafeo's life changing move for love". 2015-11-16. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 2019-10-20.
  34. "Rose Matefeo's ex boyfriend opens up about being dumped for Mr Bean". stuff.co.nz. 2019-03-05. Retrieved 2021-01-02.
  35. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/spy-rose-matafeo-leaving-nz-to-join-british-boyfriend/53WH3YJ32Q5WBLAUZIO6V2HXRM/
  36. MacManus, Joel (29 June 2020). "Comedian Rose Matafeo asked to step down from hosting Greens campaign launch". Stuff. Retrieved 29 June 2020.
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