The White Lotus<\/a>. <\/p>\nO\u2019Reilly, who played Pam the health butler for the Ratliff family, recalls getting that phone call.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was right where you are now,\u201d she recalls, pointing to my dining chair. \u201cI was talking to my agent, and it was a Saturday morning here with my kids. And I got it.\u201d <\/p>\n
![\"Morgana]()
Morgana O’Reilly played Pam in The White Lotus.<\/p>\n
The daughter of dancer and choreographer Mary-Jane and Phil O\u2019Reilly, 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. <\/p>\n
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\u2019s been seen in comedies (Mean Mums), biopics (Billy T James) and scary movies (Housebound). <\/p>\n
O\u2019Reilly says while the White Lotus casting felt like an amazing achievement, she also realises the industry \u201clikes to create a sense of finish lines\u201d such as \u201cmaking it\u201d or getting your \u201cbig break\u201d, and she was left wondering if this was hers. <\/p>\n
\u201cI sort of begrudgingly admitted that White Lotus felt like a break of sorts. So I felt like, 20 years after drama school, I\u2019d done something quite big and fancy, so that felt really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding to the fresh street cred, O\u2019Reilly 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. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe [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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair have kept in touch. \u201cWe send each other voice messages, and I keep hers because her voice is so wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Morgana]()
Morgana O’Reilly with her husband, After The Party director Peter Salmon, at the 2025 NZ Screen Awards. Photo \/ Robert Trathen<\/p>\n
The friendships came as a surprise for the 40-year-old, who\u2019d prepared herself to not feel particularly welcome on set. Not that she was worried about that possible scenario.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nobody\u2019s job to do that, and I didn\u2019t want to waste energy, which I have in the past, trying to be accepted.\u201d <\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes 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,\u201d she admits. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf I didn\u2019t have a family, there\u2019s a world in which I would have gone to LA after, and hustled away. And whether that would have changed anything, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
While she says the high-profile role has opened doors for her, which she calls \u201cpriceless\u201d, O\u2019Reilly wants to keep her attention closer to home, for now.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur kids are young, and the majority of my life as a parent will be with adult children. So I\u2019m trying to make the most of this. Our daughter is 10, and it\u2019s really speeding up now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve found the challenge, actually, is to try and find this equilibrium or satisfaction in dreaming and aspiring, but also going, \u2018I want to be available for my kids. I don\u2019t want to be away for months on end\u2019 \u2013 maybe sometimes,\u201d she says with a laugh. <\/p>\n
While her kids are proud of her achievements \u2013 she calls her daughter \u201cher personal cheerleader\u201d \u2013 she thinks if given the choice between their mum landing a big role or being available for school pick-up, they\u2019d choose the school run every time. <\/p>\n
![\"'Our]()
‘Our kids are young, and the majority of my life as a parent will be with adult children. So I\u2019m trying to make the most of this.’ Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
\u201cI moved around a lot between Thailand and here and Sydney, and so it\u2019s been a real joy to watch my kids go to one school all year and to give them some stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Life isn\u2019t quiet though. Unsurprisingly, a flurry of local productions have nabbed O\u2019Reilly while they can. But she says she wants to earn those smaller roles on merit, not just expectation.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople cast you because maybe you\u2019re fancy and you go, \u2019but I\u2019m good at what I do … that\u2019s why you wanted me, right\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
Her exposure to Hollywood players further reiterated that the New Zealand industry is also stacked with talent \u2013 it just needs to back itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like to go, \u2018oh, but we\u2019re smaller, and if you\u2019re from overseas, you must be better\u2019. And we\u2019ve got to fix that thinking because it\u2019s amazing here. There\u2019s an authenticity here, and there\u2019s a really specific tone here performance-wise \u2013 it\u2019s funny, and it\u2019s brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n
And one particularly funny and brilliant Kiwi star she\u2019s been working alongside is comedian Tom Sainsbury, who cast O\u2019Reilly as Joni in Small Town Scandal, the upcoming series based on his hit podcast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n
![\"]()
Tom Sainsbury stars in Small Town Scandal, the new series based on his podcast.<\/p>\n
Sainsbury agrees reuniting as grown ups gave them a chance to revisit that dynamic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMorgana is wonderfully cheeky and delightful on set,\u201d he says. \u201cShe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Reilly is happily looking ahead too. She\u2019s working on a film, though she\u2019s staying coy as she figures out \u201chow to birth my art baby film into the world\u201d. And after Scandal she\u2019s playing police officer Deb alongside Roimata Fox in Bust Up, a six-part cop crime series set in the Far North.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve played a character like Deb for a long time. She is bolshie and she is brash and she\u2019s messy, but incredibly honourable, which I love about her.\u201d <\/p>\n
But right now she\u2019s finding joy in a moment\u2019s respite, a Kiwi summer and counting her blessings at home. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy 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,\u201d she says, breaking into a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I am just feeling blessed and happy and lucky.\u201d<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
Jenni Mortimer is the New Zealand Herald\u2019s chief lifestyle and entertainment reporter. She started at the Herald in 2017 and has previously worked as lifestyle, entertainment and travel editor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Morgana O’Reilly in her Auckland home. Photo \/ Michael Craig \u201cValidation is just delicious, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1443,3376,32955,10001,156,51500,47963,1345,78,185,57200,424,13840,663,23736,149384,57201,117,111,139,69,115708,3236,15400,5970,3271,20441,2737,21707,6642,223,36672,6923,1316,16550,4276,21043,4576,80],"class_list":["post-259996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-about","tag-actor","tag-answer","tag-closer","tag-entertainment","tag-happy","tag-harder","tag-home","tag-in","tag-is","tag-jenni","tag-life","tag-like","tag-looks","tag-lotus","tag-morgana","tag-mortimer","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oreilly","tag-overseas","tag-push","tag-really","tag-should","tag-sometimes","tag-star","tag-staying","tag-tells","tag-the","tag-thinks","tag-what","tag-when","tag-white","tag-why","tag-wonders","tag-work","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}