Personal details
- Birth Date: 1971-10-20
- Height: 5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Birth Location: Auckland, New Zealand
- Parents: Sheila House
- Professions: Actress, Additional Crew, Director
Rachel House (Kai Tahu, Te Atiawa, Ngati Mutunga) has pretty much done it all in the New Zealand screen scene. She’s not just an actor, but a writer and director too, and she’s got the receipts to prove it. Her first feature as director, ‘The Mountain’, is dropping in Taranaki in 2024—looks like she’s bringing it back home. Funny thing, way back when she was at Prague Film School, she already scooped up Best Director and the audience award for her shorts. Not stopping there, she made a splash in London with a Te Reo Māori version of 'Troilus and Cressida' at the freaking Globe Theatre. Yeah, she’s that versatile. As an actor, she’s all over the map—movies, TV, stage, you name it. Lately, you might’ve spotted her in ‘Our Flag Means Death 2’ (HBO Max), ‘Heartbreak High’ (Netflix), Apple TV+’s ‘Foundation’, and the upcoming ‘Time Bandits’. She even lent her voice to Disney hits like ‘Moana’ and ‘Soul’, and popped up in Taika Waititi’s signature flicks: ‘Boy’, ‘Hunt for the Wilderpeople’, ‘Next Goal Wins’, and the Marvel hit ‘Thor: Ragnarok’. Her voice work doesn’t stop there—she’s been part of ‘Sherwood’, ‘The Lion Guard’, ‘Amphibia’, and a heap more animated shows. She’s also coached some of the best in the biz, teaming up with Jane Campion for ‘Top of the Lake’ and ‘The Power of the Dog’, plus a bunch of Taika Waititi’s projects. Awards? Yeah, she’s stacked: Arts Laureate, NZ Order of Merit, ‘Mana Wahine’ from WIFT NZ, and a Matariki Award. Rachel’s basically a powerhouse—kinda hard not to be in awe.
Back when she was just 19, she landed a gig as the backup singer for Greg Johnson on the New Zealand track “Isabelle.” That song actually made it pretty big, hitting number 7 on the NZ charts—so, not exactly small potatoes. But get this, instead of a fancy paycheck or even a decent dinner, her reward for lending her voice? Just a bottle of vodka. That’s it. No glam, no big break, just a bottle to take home. It’s almost hilarious, honestly—like some kind of classic musician’s rite of passage. Singing on a hit single, but getting paid in booze. Makes you wonder how many other songs out there have backup singers who got the same “payment.” Still, kind of a wild story to tell at parties. Wouldn’t you love to say, “Yeah, I sang on a top-ten track once. Got vodka for my trouble”? That’s rock ‘n’ roll, in its own oddball way.
October 20, 1971
5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
Konidela Ram Charan
Auckland, New Zealand
Sheila House and Surekha
53 years old