New Zealand Week: Day 6: Star Profiles: Rena Owen

Rena Owen

As one of New Zealand's top female stars, Rena Owen has taken on many roles through the years.  From her beginnings in theater to breakthrough roles in film and television, she has shown herself to be among the top acting talents around.  She's also overcome personal problems and addiction, never letting life beat her down.


Born sometime in the 1960s, Rena was the fifth of nine children born to a Māori-Welsh father and a European mother.  The family lived primarily in the northern part of New Zealand, in a semi-rural area.  Rena was particularly close to her Māori grandmother, who immersed the young girl in all aspects of her native heritage. 

Dreams of anything beyond a typical life were not a part of Rena's make-up and, though she appeared in school productions as a teenager, she did not at first consider acting as a possible profession.  Instead, she trained as a nurse in Auckland.  Around this same time, her world was rocked by the suicide of an older brother.  In an effort to suppress the emotional pain, Rena left New Zealand, traveling to London, England, and there falling into the drug scene.  An arrest and a stint in prison gave her a chance to clean up and, after her release, she found her true calling at last.

Rena as Beth Heke with Temuera Morrison as Jake in Once
Were Warriors.

In the mid-1980s, Rena began trying to make a name for herself on the British stage.  By 1989, she returned to New Zealand and continued her acting, breaking into television and small movie roles as well.  Her biggest initial breakthrough came in 1994 when she played Beth, the abused wife of Jake "The Muss" Heke, in the big screen adaptation of Alan Duff's novel Once Were Warriors.  Her work in that film earned her many awards, as well as international acclaim.  She would go on to reprise the role of Beth in 1999's What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?

Rena as Dinza opposite David Boreanaz
as the vampire Angel in Angel

After the success of Once Were Warriors, Rena continued in film, theater, and television, taking such diverse roles as Macy Fields in the Australian produced medical drama Medivac, prostitute Micki in the hit New Zealand comedy I'll Make You Happy, Soona Fulaau in The Mary Kay Letourneau Story: All-American Girl, and the demonic Dinza on an episode of the American fantasy drama Angel.  She would also work again (in a way) with former co-star Temuera Morrison in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.  In AotC she voiced the CGI Kaminoan Taun We, while in RotS, she had a small role as a galactic senator.

Rena continues to work steadily, with film roles booked through 2011 and always, always, work in the theater.  Her motto, "Love what you do and do it to the best of your ability" is truly representative of her career.