shaun swain

Shaun Swain is a Takatāpui award winning director, writer, actor, and filmmaker; Ngāpuhi/Ngāti Kahu; Waikato born; Southland-raised; Otago and Pōneke-trained.

Shaun is a diverse and versatile storyteller, playfully toeing the line between farcical comedy and psychological horror. He uses short sharp montage and exaggerated expressive physicality in order to poke at the boundaries of film and theatre as mediums; visceral yet cerebral; energetic yet penetrative. He regularly situates the spectators as complicit in the action unfolding in front of them and asks them to actively confront the world they have helped create. Thrilling, hilarious, often unnerving, but always to the point. 

Whether it be his Wellington directorial debut, Vixen Temple’s Just The Tip: A Stripper’s Guide to Strip Club Etiquette, in which audiences were placed in the role of ‘baby stripper,’ attending her first day’s clientele played by Temple or his award winning short film Blackout, the story of an emerging performer uncovering and resolving with his director’s insidious intentions, Shaun strives to tell stories that punch up, punch hard, and are both unsettling and cathartic in equal measure.

Shaun is also an award winning children’s playwright, having won the Playmarket Plays for the Young for Ages 3 - 8 for their play Prince Charming, which premiered at the New Athenaeum Theatre in December 2018. Additionally he has worked with Ōtepōti’s InterAct, teaching Drama as an Assistant Tutor and Tutor for ages spanning from intermediate to adulthood across a variety of abilities and backgrounds.

Most recently, in 2023, Shaun had the pleasure of taking to the BATS stage as an actor thanks to The Magnificent Weirdos Five Slices of Another Life, in which he played a myriad of characters, and again in 2024 with Jo Marsh’s Hamlet: One Hour, Three Actors, in which he played the titular role.

Shaun holds a Master of Fine Arts (Creative Practice) in Film, a Certificate from The Director’s Program, and a Bachelor of Arts (Combined Honours) in Theatre Studies and Film and Media Studies.

Shaun is also currently holding The Magnificent Weirdos’ social media accounts hostage.