Loren Taylor

Loren Taylor (nee Horsley) pursued a career in acting and film making after leaving school. She remembers her first film making experience as being in Year 11 at PNGHS when she and two friends , Angeline Loo and Megan Irons, made a short film in Drama which was inspired by Campion’s “The Piano”. Her teachers remember her as an incredibly clever and hard working young woman with a lively sense of humour as well as an immensely gifted actor and orator. I remember that as a Year 9 student she had a featured role in the school’s production of “Romeo and Juliet” and as a 11 student she won the senior speech competition.

She has had many stage and screen achievements since leaving us. The first we heard of was when she was performing in a Jo Randerson play at Bats, then we saw her in a TV ad, numerous TV appearances followed, in addition to feature films which she wrote as well as performed in. For many years I used a film she co-wrote and starred in, “Eagle vs Shark”, with junior classes. I loved introducing them to the work of such a talented ex student and showing them the arts are a valid career choice. 

Her awards include:

2023 Tallin Black Nights Film Festival

Best First Feature Film Award (with Philippa Campbell and Georgina Allison Conder): for “The Moon Is Upside Down”.

2023 New Zealand International Film Festival
Patrons Award for Best Short Film (with Jo Randerson): for “Hey Brainy Man”

2007 Newport International Film Festival (United States)
Jury Award for Best Actress: for “Eagle vs Shark”

2003 New Zealand Film and TV Awards
Nominated for Best Screenplay (with Grant Lahood, Jason Whyte, Gentiane Lupi, and Genevieve McClean): for Kombi Nation

Her first feature film as a director – which she also stars in because she so is multi-talented – called “The Moon is Upside Down” and was released in the first week of May . It is an R16 so we will be encouraging our seniors and staff to go and see it and enjoy a Palmy Girls’ high old girls’ success. The NZ film news interview can be accessed here: https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/nzfc-spotlight-loren-taylor

Angeline Loo

In the same year group as Loren, and one of her closest friends, Angeline Loo also developed a taste for film work as a school student. Her creative talents lead her first to work in set decorating and art design on both New Zealand and international film and television productions. She is a winner of a NZ film award for co-writing “My wedding and Other Secrets” and she both wrote and directed sections of the 2022 film “Kainga” which explores the experience of Asian women in New Zealand. One of her latest projects as a writer is for a TV special entitled “Amah”. We will be looking out for it!

Meg Mason

Meg Mason (nee Irons) was the other member of the Year 11 film making team. She now lives in Australia where she has a successful literary career as a writer. Her works include: “Say It Again in A Nice Voice” (2012); “You Be Mother” (2017); and “Sorrow and Bliss” (2020). The latter won the British Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year in 2022. Do read her works, at least two of them are available at the city library. Co-incidentally, lately she has also been writing for the screen. Who can say for sure, but maybe it was that creative film making experience at school that lead all three of these talented old girls into the creative arts generally and the film industry particularly.

Phway Su Aye - CEO and creative director of Gabar. Click on link below for article.

 https://fq.co.nz/meet-our-friday-muse-phway-su-aye-of-gabar/