Paolo Rotondo

Paolo is a passionate artist who has worked as a Playwright, writer, director, and actor in theatre film, and television. 

Paolo’s first play Black Hands in 1995 was written as a response to seeing David Bain go to trial for the murder of his family. The play was successfully staged in the Watershed Basement theatre.

In 2001 Paolo began work on his second Play Little Che inspired loosely on the Motorcycle Diaries about the youth of the great revolutionary icon Che Guevara. The play was a sell-out in two National tours.

2007 saw the premiere of Strange Resting Places drawn from histories of the Maori Battalion in Italy during WWII, co written with Rob Mokaraka. Five years of research both in New Zealand and Italy culminated in family histories woven with comedy in to a hilarious and moving tribute to the men and women of the time. The story centered on the battle of Monte Cassino in 1944. Taki Rua Productions toured the show non-stop for over four years. Strange Resting Places toured internationally to; London, Singapore, Australia, The Pacific Art Festival in Samoa and venues, theatres and Marae around New Zealand. Strange Resting Places received unanimous critical acclaim including Best New Playwrights at the 2008 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. The play was recorded for television.

Paolo wrote the award-winning short film Dead Letters, and the critically acclaimed short film The Freezer – both supported by the NZ Film Commission, winning Best Script for Dead Letters at the 2006 NZ Screen Awards.

In 2006 Paolo was recipient of the Italian Film Festival Filmmakers Scholarship and in 2009 he was a Shakespeare Globe International Artistic Fellow, traveling to London to study and perform on the Globe Theatre main stage.

.