Philip Smith(XI)

Philip Smith is the owner of Great Southern Television, a company he launched in 2002. He has written or created over 70 television series in New Zealand, Australia, the USA and the UK including the AMC drama series, One Lane Bridge, the Netflix series, The Casketeers, the BBC1 Series Coast Australia and Coast New Zealand. He also created the dramas The Pretender, the Cult, Agent Anna, Why Does Love, The Kick and One Lane Bridge. He was named NZ drama writer of the year in 2018 and was a Logie finalist in Australia. He has won 23 NZ Film and Television Awards. The awards include best drama series (The Cult, One Lane Bridge), best comedy series (The Unauthorised History of New Zealand), best current affairs show (The Hui), best entertainment show (My Kitchen Rules), best documentary series (NZ Wars), best factual series (The Casketeers and Coast NZ). Earlier in his career he worked as a journalist for the Financial Times - and worked as a war correspondent in Burundi, Rwanda, Sarajevo and Romania. But he is best known for co-creating the cult NZ satire, Eating Media Lunch, with Jeremy Wells and Paul Casserley, which ran for eight seasons.