Miriama smith
Te Arawa | Actress
Miriama Smith is a celebrated New Zealand actress with over 30 years of experience in a diverse range of on-screen roles.
Miriama spent much of her childhood learning dance. Encouraged to model, she found her calling after someone suggested she try acting instead. A couple of advertisements aside, her first dramatic role was as a teenager who leads a friend astray in a 1991 episode of police drama Shark in the Park.
Miriama and her career since then have been busy, balancing a long run of screen roles with presenting work, competing on Dancing with the Stars and time on the judging panel for New Zealand's Got Talent.
At high school she acted in fantasy series Mirror, Mirror and starred in TV's The Kina Factory. The programme was made as part of an international series in which varied youth encounter environmental problems. Miriama took on further roles while studying sport, fitness and public relations at Waikato University, then at 20 she joined the cast of Shortland Street.
She went on to win acting nominations for both 2007 movie We're Here to Help and Margaret Mahy TV fantasy Kaitangata Twitch in 2010. She is currently filming a new mystery drama series for Whakaata Maori, due to be released in 2024.
Earlier this year Miriama was on Celebrity Treasure Island, and played the lead in comedy series Rule of Mum. She played a key supporting role, alongside Cliff Curtis and Temueura Morrison, in historical feature drama Ka Whawhai Tonu Mātou, and played a guest role in Irish/NZ co-production The Gone.
Previously, Miriama was well-known to Kiwi audiences for her leading role as ruthless CEO "Brady Truebridge" in two seasons of Filthy Rich, and in 2012 Miriama received the award for Best Supporting Actress at the NZ Film & Television Awards for her "chillingly remarkable" portrayal of Delwyn Keefe, the widow of Napier gunman Jan Molennaar, in feature film Siege.
Alongside her prolific acting career, Miriama is a trained yoga teacher and independent registered marriage celebrant. She lives in Waihi Beach in New Zealand, and when she's not filming or travelling, cherishes time spent with her son and dog