Jennifer Ward-Lealand Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Jennifer Ward-Lealand
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jennifer Cecily Ward-Lealand CNZM (born 8 November 1962) is a New Zealand actor and director whose screen credits includes the in 1993 movie Desperate Remedies as well as appearances in The Footstep Man, the soap Shortland Street and Australian comedy series Full Frontal. Ward-Lealand was born in Wellington, New Zealand to Philippa "Pippa" Mary (née Ward) and Conrad Ainsley Lealand. She has an older sister, Diana Mary Ward-Pickering and a half brother Simcha Lindt. She is married to actor Michael Hurst of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys fame. They have two sons, born in 1997, and 1999. Her first ongoing television role was as Jan in Close to Home (1978–1980). After leaving school she spent a year touring New Zealand in a community theatre group, performing clown shows and Chekhov. In 1982 Ward-Lealand completed a year-long diploma in acting from Auckland's then influential Theatre Corporate. In between the theatre work that followed, Ward-Lealand appeared in short-lived TV drama Seekers, before her breakthrough television role in "Danny and Raewyn", an episode from the About Face series. Filmed largely in an Auckland flat so cramped the cameraman sometimes had to sit on the stove, this tale of working class relationship breakdown would win Ward-Lealand a GOFTA Best Actress Award. The same year Ward-Lealand made her big screen debut as nightclub singer Costello – and sang three songs – in Wellington crime thriller Dangerous Orphans. From 1989 to 1990 she appeared with Harry Sinclair and Don McGlashan in theatre/musical group The Front Lawn, winning a number of awards and accolades, and acting in Front Lawn film Linda's Body. In 1993 she appeared in the first series of TV skit comedy show, Full Frontal. As an actress, singer and director of theatre, Ward-Lealand has a number of credits and accolades, and acted in New Zealand plays The Bach, Via Satellite, and The Sex Fiend. In 2007, she toured her acclaimed Marlene Dietrich cabaret show, Falling in Love Again (also the name of her first solo CD) in New Zealand and Australia. She later toured with the same show in 2018. Jennifer Ward-Lealand is fluent in Te Reo Māori, the native language of New Zealand. Ward-Lealand, who herself is not Māori, started learning the language after not being able to respond to a traditional mihi or welcome speech. Ward-Lealand has also been an advocate for improving actors' working conditions and pay.
Filmography Movies
Acting
The Ugly
A female psychologist wants to understand the minds of a confessed serial killer who spent the last five years in a mental hospital because of his state.
Desperate Remedies
In a town called Hope on the edge of Britain's empire, desperations clash: the beautiful Dorothea Brook is desperate to free her pregnant sister Rose from the clutches of Fraser, a fortune hunter. A local politician, William Poyner, is desperate for cash and thinks marriage to Dorothea will save him. Dorothea hires Lawrence Hayes, a rough but handsome Argonaut, to bribe Fraser with jewels and to marry Rose; Hayes desperately loves Dorothea and may marry Rose to stay close to her. But Dorothea has a lover, the ravishing Anne Cooper, who encourages the match with Poyser to give the lovers cover. Are these remedies, each desperate in its turn, going to make anyone happy?
Fracture
A young solo mother loves her son and his needs are formost, but she still has room in her heart for her very broken brother, even as her fundamentalist mother rejects her. But when the brother is responsible for a woman's broken neck, during his burglary of her house, families are changed as crisis amplifies and at times the young mother seems to be the only adult.
Dangerous Orphans
Three orphaned boys - O'Malley, Rossi and Moir - become blood brothers. When they grow up, they plot revenge on the crooks who got away with shooting O'Malley's father. The crooks are doing very nicely importing heroin and laundering money. The boys begin by killing one of the crooks, stealing his indentification and cleaning out the guy's Swiss bank account. But their revenge does not stop here... And the American end of the operation is getting very curious.
I'll Make You Happy
Siggy (Jennifer Ward-Lealand) is a teenage "bad girl" who lives and works in a red-light district of Auckland, New Zealand. Just like her fellow streetwalkers, Siggy constantly dreams of leaving "the life" behind. When she learns one day that her pimp is planning a big drug score, Siggy decides to seize the day -- and her future -- by grabbing the loot.
The Bar
In The Bar, a who's who of the 1990s Kiwi acting community play punters at an Auckland bar. Director Dorthe Scheffmann (Vermilion) made the short film at infamous Ponsonby pub SPQR, which she co-owned. A handheld camera weaves in and around the space, as a drug dealer and his friend (Peter Tait and Bruce Hopkins) talk business; yuppies hold forth on political issues (Peter Elliott, Harry Sinclair and Simon Prast); and a couple (Jennifer Ward-Lealand and Michael Hurst) try to hold their relationship together.
I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry
After Jane leaves Bill, they each meet unusual strangers as they travel on their own.
The Footstep Man
Sam is a sound technician, who must literally walk in the footsteps of the characters on the screen. A "film within a film" that connects the world of modern film-making to the Paris of painter Toulouse-Lautrec and his model/lover Mireille.
Vermilion
Darcy, a composer, sees colors when she plays musical notes. When she notices her usually subtle colors changing, she realizes a profound change is upon her. Over a summer month, Darcy creates a time of music and reflection that help her make a final choice.
A Game With No Rules
For Kane Harris and Vera Smith, what starts as an easy task of murder becomes a tangled web of deception and betrayal. Their target, Kane's wife, is no easy victim.
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