Madeleine Nalini Sami is a New Zealand actor, director, comedian and musician.[1] She started her acting career in theatre before moving to television, where she created, co-wrote, and starred in Super City. She co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the 2018 film The Breaker Upperers, along with Jackie van Beek, which was a New Zealand box office success. Sami co-hosted The Great Kiwi Bake Off.
Early life
Sami is one of four children. Her parents are Christine Southee, who has Irish ancestry, and Naren Sami, a Fijian-Indian who settled in New Zealand.[2] Her parents separated when she was twelve.[2] She attended Onehunga High School.[3]
Career
Madeleine Sami performing at the King's Arms, Auckland, 2007
In 2011, Sami created, co-wrote alongside Tom Sainsbury, and starred in her own comedy series, Super City, which was directed by Taika Waititi.[4] Sami played five different characters in the show and won Best Performance by an Actress at the 2011 AFTA awards.[5][6] She later co-hosted The Great Kiwi Bake Off and starred in the television series Golden Boy and The Bad Seed.[7][8] She made her TV directorial debut when she directed an episode of the second season of Funny Girls, eventually directing eleven episodes of the series.[9]
Sami is a part of The Sami Sisters, a musical group consisting of herself and her two sisters. They released an album Happy Heartbreak in 2011.[10]
She co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the 2018 film The Breaker Upperers, along with Jackie van Beek.[11] The film received positive reviews and was a box office hit in New Zealand, becoming the best selling New Zealand film of 2018 and is one of the top 20 grossing New Zealand films ever.[12][13][14] The pair will reunite to direct the Netflix film Hope, starring Aubrey Plaza.[15] Sami also appeared in the 2019 film, Come to Daddy, directed by Ant Timpson.[16]
On May 17, 2021 Sami appeared on The Masked Singer NZ as the "Monarch (Butterfly)", getting eliminated in the fourth episode. The same year she was on the panel show Patriot Brains.
Personal life
In January 2015, Sami married Pip Brown, known as the singer-songwriter Ladyhawke.[17] Brown gave birth to their daughter on 20 October 2017.[18] Sami and Brown announced the end of the relationship in 2023.[19]
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