Morgana O’Reilly in her Auckland home. Photo / Michael Craig
“Validation is just delicious, isn’t it? It’s a very strong currency in my books,” laughs O’Reilly as I address the Emmy in the room.
“I do love our Emmy so much, but my most prized award is a cute little trophy that I have from Western Springs College.”
O’Reilly explains she was a bit of a “brat” in high school, so she cherishes the award she won for her contribution to the performing arts, mainly because she didn’t expect, nor feel worthy, of it.
“It probably needs a polish,” she admits.
But one thing that’s certainly still shiny is her reputation locally as the actress of the moment, after a fan-favourite turn in season three of the HBO smash hit The White Lotus.
O’Reilly, who played Pam the health butler for the Ratliff family, recalls getting that phone call.
“I was right where you are now,” she recalls, pointing to my dining chair. “I was talking to my agent, and it was a Saturday morning here with my kids. And I got it.”
Morgana O’Reilly played Pam in The White Lotus.
The daughter of dancer and choreographer Mary-Jane and Phil O’Reilly, she got her start young in local theatre in Auckland and created a one-woman play called The Height of the Eiffel Tower, which she performed at the New York Fringe Festival.
Australia was next, when she was cast in Neighbours, starring as Naomi Canning, on and off, for more than seven years and later turns in prison drama Wentworth and the recent Paramount+ series Playing Gracie Darling. Here at home she’s been seen in comedies (Mean Mums), biopics (Billy T James) and scary movies (Housebound).
O’Reilly says while the White Lotus casting felt like an amazing achievement, she also realises the industry “likes to create a sense of finish lines” such as “making it” or getting your “big break”, and she was left wondering if this was hers.
“I sort of begrudgingly admitted that White Lotus felt like a break of sorts. So I felt like, 20 years after drama school, I’d done something quite big and fancy, so that felt really cool.”
Adding to the fresh street cred, O’Reilly also now gets to call the likes of Scream and Dazed and Confused actor Parker Posey and Insecure star Natasha Rothwell friends, having formed lasting bonds with them on set.
“She [Posey] lived up to everything. I remember the first day of the shoot and feeling that if nothing else, I just got to watch a master do her thing.”
The pair have kept in touch. “We send each other voice messages, and I keep hers because her voice is so wonderful.”
Morgana O’Reilly with her husband, After The Party director Peter Salmon, at the 2025 NZ Screen Awards. Photo / Robert Trathen
The friendships came as a surprise for the 40-year-old, who’d prepared herself to not feel particularly welcome on set. Not that she was worried about that possible scenario.
“It was nobody’s job to do that, and I didn’t want to waste energy, which I have in the past, trying to be accepted.”
But being part of such a large-scale production left the actor with a lingering thought in her mind; was it time to capitalise on the moment, to hone in on the bright lights of Hollywood?
“Sometimes I wonder if I should be trying to push harder overseas, but inevitably it just always comes back to quality of life and being here,” she admits.
“If I didn’t have a family, there’s a world in which I would have gone to LA after, and hustled away. And whether that would have changed anything, I don’t know.”
While she says the high-profile role has opened doors for her, which she calls “priceless”, O’Reilly wants to keep her attention closer to home, for now.
“Our kids are young, and the majority of my life as a parent will be with adult children. So I’m trying to make the most of this. Our daughter is 10, and it’s really speeding up now.
“I’ve found the challenge, actually, is to try and find this equilibrium or satisfaction in dreaming and aspiring, but also going, ‘I want to be available for my kids. I don’t want to be away for months on end’ – maybe sometimes,” she says with a laugh.
While her kids are proud of her achievements – she calls her daughter “her personal cheerleader” – she thinks if given the choice between their mum landing a big role or being available for school pick-up, they’d choose the school run every time.
‘Our kids are young, and the majority of my life as a parent will be with adult children. So I’m trying to make the most of this.’ Photo / Michael Craig
“I moved around a lot between Thailand and here and Sydney, and so it’s been a real joy to watch my kids go to one school all year and to give them some stability.”
Life isn’t quiet though. Unsurprisingly, a flurry of local productions have nabbed O’Reilly while they can. But she says she wants to earn those smaller roles on merit, not just expectation.
“People cast you because maybe you’re fancy and you go, ’but I’m good at what I do … that’s why you wanted me, right’?”
Her exposure to Hollywood players further reiterated that the New Zealand industry is also stacked with talent – it just needs to back itself.
“We like to go, ‘oh, but we’re smaller, and if you’re from overseas, you must be better’. And we’ve got to fix that thinking because it’s amazing here. There’s an authenticity here, and there’s a really specific tone here performance-wise – it’s funny, and it’s brilliant.”
And one particularly funny and brilliant Kiwi star she’s been working alongside is comedian Tom Sainsbury, who cast O’Reilly as Joni in Small Town Scandal, the upcoming series based on his hit podcast.
“I love working with Tom. We did so much theatre together when we were in our early 20s, little theatre kids. I was a founding member of the Basement, and we would put on the shows there, and they were so naughty and silly and fun,” she says.
Tom Sainsbury stars in Small Town Scandal, the new series based on his podcast.
Sainsbury agrees reuniting as grown ups gave them a chance to revisit that dynamic.
“Morgana is wonderfully cheeky and delightful on set,” he says. “She had a gag for every scene that would put me in hysterics. I feel so lucky to have been paid just to hang out and laugh with my friend.”
O’Reilly is happily looking ahead too. She’s working on a film, though she’s staying coy as she figures out “how to birth my art baby film into the world”. And after Scandal she’s playing police officer Deb alongside Roimata Fox in Bust Up, a six-part cop crime series set in the Far North.
“I don’t think I’ve played a character like Deb for a long time. She is bolshie and she is brash and she’s messy, but incredibly honourable, which I love about her.”
But right now she’s finding joy in a moment’s respite, a Kiwi summer and counting her blessings at home.
“My dog is making me happy. My kids make me so happy. My beautiful husband makes me so happy. I feel very, very lucky and blessed. God, that sounds so lame,” she says, breaking into a laugh.
“But I am just feeling blessed and happy and lucky.”
Small Town Scandal is on Neon and Sky Comedy from February 9, with two episodes dropping weekly, and will air weekly on Sky Open from March 24. Bust Up is coming to Neon and Sky later this year.
Jenni Mortimer is the New Zealand Herald’s chief lifestyle and entertainment reporter. She started at the Herald in 2017 and has previously worked as lifestyle, entertainment and travel editor.