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Actor · Writer

1980-05-10 · Auckland, New Zealand · Female

13 series in the catalog

Madeleine Nalini Sami (born 1980) is a New Zealand actress, director, comedian, and musician. She started her acting career in theatre before moving to television, where she created, co-wrote, and starred in Super City. She co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the 2018 film The Breaker Upperers along with Jackie van Beek. Sami co-hosted The Great Kiwi Bake Off.

Early life and education

Madeleine Nalini Sami is one of four children. Her parents are Christine Southee, who has Irish ancestry, and Naren Sami, a Fijian-Indian who has Telugu ancestry, who settled in New Zealand. Her parents separated when she was twelve.

She attended Onehunga High School.

Career

Sami rose to prominence starring in Toa Fraser's play Bare, directed by Michael Robinson, winning Best Actress at the 1999 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. She then was part of Fraser's next play, No. 2., which won Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

In 2011, Sami created, co-wrote alongside Tom Sainsbury, and starred in her own comedy series, Super City, which was directed by Taika Waititi. Sami played five different characters in the show and won Best Performance by an Actress at the 2011 Aotearoa Film & Television Awards. She later co-hosted The Great Kiwi Bake Off and starred in the television series Golden Boy and The Bad Seed. She made her TV directorial debut with an episode of the second season of Funny Girls, eventually directing eleven episodes of the series.

Sami is a part of The Sami Sisters, a musical group consisting of herself and her two sisters. They released an album called Happy Heartbreak in 2011.

She co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the 2018 film The Breaker Upperers, along with Jackie van Beek. The film received positive reviews and was a box office hit in New Zealand, becoming the best selling New Zealand film of 2018 and is one of the top 20 grossing New Zealand films ever. The pair are set to direct the Netflix film Hope, starring Aubrey Plaza. Sami also appeared in the 2019 film Come to Daddy, directed by Ant Timpson.

On 17 May 2021, Sami appeared on The Masked Singer NZ as the "Monarch (Butterfly)", getting eliminated in the fourth episode. The same year, she was on the panel show Patriot Brains.

Sami starred in the 2023 Australian television series Deadloch. On July 9, 2024, Deadloch was renewed for a second season, with Sami reprising the role of Eddie Redcliffe.

She was a voice actor in the Australian comedy sci-fi film Lesbian Space Princess, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2024.

Personal life

In January 2015, Sami married Phillipa "Pip" Brown, more commonly known by her stage name Ladyhawke. Brown gave birth to their daughter in 2017. Sami and Brown announced the end of their relationship in 2023.

Auckland Actors profile

TV3 Super City web page Archived 31 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine