{"id":296170,"date":"2026-02-22T04:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/296170\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T04:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T04:37:07","slug":"michael-galvin-reflects-on-childhood-fame-and-three-decades-on-shortland-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/296170\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Galvin reflects on childhood, fame and three decades on Shortland Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MichaelMichael was a well-behaved child. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

At Raroa Normal Intermediate, a woman called Anne Fox was in charge of musicals. She cast me as Oliver when I was 11. Oliver! was my gateway drug for theatre and it\u2019s been downhill ever since!<\/p>\n

I was never compelled to be naughty. Mum was a social worker and a psychologist who\u2019d talk with us about absolutely anything. Both parents were open-minded and we were never forbidden from doing things, so there was nothing for us to rebel against. Which is how I\u2019ve tried to bring up my own daughter, by keeping the channels of communication open. I could also see the logic of not smoking behind the bike sheds.<\/p>\n

For holidays, we rarely went further than the K\u0101piti Coast, unless we were visiting our great-aunt and uncle in Meadowbank. It\u2019s still so exciting to think about those trips, as Auckland was such a magical destination. We had this big Fiat station wagon and we\u2019d drive through the night or leave very early. My little brother Pete and I would be fast asleep in the very back with no seat belts, which is hilariously unsafe to imagine now. <\/p>\n

Mum had a strong creative bent. She played the piano and told lovely stories. Including about her own mother, who was a theatre usherette with a great ear for music. My grandmother would watch the movies, for example, a Fred Astaire film, then go home and play the songs<\/a> she\u2019d heard for all her friends. That was life before Spotify, but nobody in our family had pursued the arts professionally before. <\/p>\n

Dad was very successful. He was Secretary of Treasury and head of the Prime Minister\u2019s Department when Muldoon was PM, so the peak of the civil service. Dad was also very encouraging and whenever I sang or was in a play, he was very sweet and effusive in his praise, as the arts were so alien to him. <\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael is a talented stage actor, musician and an award-winning playwright. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

I did a Bachelor of Arts at Victoria and, as a homage to my father, I did commerce, but I quickly dropped it because I had no enthusiasm for it. Dad was supportive but like all parents, he worried for my job security. The landscape for actors was very different pre-Shorty. Back then, most actors worked in theatre, which didn\u2019t pay very well, so he was right to be worried, as any parent should be when their child says they want to be an actor.<\/p>\n

I was with a great bunch at drama school. Marton Csokas and Cliff Curtis both have big international careers. Tim Balme, Emily Perkins and Sima Urale were there too. Although the first time I applied, I didn\u2019t get in. I found out later it was because one of the tutors thought my degree would make me close-minded and unable to accept new ideas. I was hugely annoyed, but the second time I auditioned, they managed to get over that bias.<\/p>\n

When I did Blue Sky Boys with Tim Balme, a musical about the Everly Brothers, we all went out to dinner afterwards. I remember Dad shaking head as he couldn\u2019t believe how much he enjoyed it and how impressed he was. He was very supportive and loving, in his way. <\/p>\n

Dad died in 2010. Although Mum is still with us, she\u2019s in a dementia ward. She knows who I am and the staff take such good care of her, but that is a different kind of journey.<\/p>\n

\"MichaelMichael has been part of Shortland Street for more than 30 years now. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been on Shorty for more than 30 years now. I was off for four, from \u201996 to 2000, and I was scared to return when I got the call. Worried I\u2019d look like a failure and that people would be negative or make fun of me. Because I\u2019d supposedly left Shorty<\/a> to find my fortune and instead I was crawling back with my tail between my legs, but the reaction was mostly very kind. There were a few sarcastic comments from some reporters, like, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s got a fake English accent\u2019, but nothing like I\u2019d imagined.<\/p>\n

Being away and coming back made me appreciate what a blessing this job is. How lucky I am to have this stability. We work incredibly hard to make Shorty and I\u2019m always meeting new people, which is wonderful. This job is like the mighty river that\u2019s always changing, yet always staying the same.<\/p>\n

During my four years away, I tried Sydney but that didn\u2019t work, then my partner at the time, artist Emily Wolfe, won a scholarship to the prestigious Slade School in London, so we went there. I had my UK passport, but I couldn\u2019t get an agent. They didn\u2019t need New Zealand actors trying to do English accents as they had English people who could do English accents. <\/p>\n

That was definitely tough and demoralising that none of my hopes panned out. But that was London for me. Doors shut in my face and I couldn\u2019t get any traction. But my writing developed and got stronger, and I did sell a screenplay. Although it never went anywhere, but I was paid proper money and that lifted me out of feeling like a failure. A little success goes a long way, but I don\u2019t really write now.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe actor says he would like to continue to make Shorty. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly<\/p>\n

When I did write, I had a lot of personal stuff to work through. That was the compulsion. This tension that needed releasing, but I\u2019m calmer and happier now, and that engine where the stories come from is less productive. <\/p>\n

I do very little when I\u2019m not working. I have two cats, but they don\u2019t take much looking after. I love spending time with my daughter, although she\u2019s at university now. I\u2019ve loved hanging out with her over the holidays. But you do have to be vigilant as a parent, to remember you\u2019re not dealing with the person they were a year ago, as they change such a lot, but that is also a joyful thing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very spoiled. I\u2019ve got a lovely job where I engage with people in an energetic, creative way, including lots of young people. But I expend a lot of energy at work, so I enjoy the luxury of being by myself and doing nothing when I can. I enjoy solitude. I meditate, which is such a peaceful thing. The appreciation of quiet, of silence, of emptiness, for want of a better word. But the good sort of emptiness that you appreciate more as you get older.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t torment myself as much as I used to or beat myself up. My ambitions are much simpler. They\u2019re more about what sort of person I want to be and I\u2019m more in control of that than external things. That\u2019s the standard course of life. A young person\u2019s ambition tends to be very outward-focused, on achievements and acquiring things. If you\u2019re lucky, your ambition shifts to a different plane and becomes more about what sort of person you want to be. But I\u2019ve still got a long way to go.<\/p>\n

Looking to the future, I\u2019d like to continue to make Shorty, as it occupies such a special place in the nation\u2019s landscape. I never take this job for granted, either. I hope they keep making it and they keep finding a place for dear old Chris.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael was a well-behaved child. Photo \/ NZ Woman’s Weekly At Raroa Normal Intermediate, a woman called Anne…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5813,3376,28358,95,68589,2546,682,2046,6184,3276,21136,9060,5136,156,39275,9517,163290,17625,25905,163291,5420,22772,131064,5494,130,65041,13631,111,139,69,90,44525,3111,2170,61492,67392,43111,84888,1974,6653,312,4062,5419,5411,9524,5433,5424,14907,15487,131,1361,1529,1528,2821,36314,50072,87539,1530,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-296170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-acting","9":"tag-actor","10":"tag-alongside","11":"tag-and","12":"tag-avenue","13":"tag-awardwinning","14":"tag-being","15":"tag-career","16":"tag-childhood","17":"tag-chris","18":"tag-computer","19":"tag-decades","20":"tag-drama","21":"tag-entertainment","22":"tag-fame","23":"tag-fans","24":"tag-galvin","25":"tag-graduate","26":"tag-hadnt","27":"tag-happily","28":"tag-hes","29":"tag-holds","30":"tag-longestserving","31":"tag-michael","32":"tag-more","33":"tag-musician","34":"tag-never","35":"tag-new-zealand","36":"tag-newzealand","37":"tag-nz","38":"tag-on","39":"tag-opera","40":"tag-out","41":"tag-plan","42":"tag-played","43":"tag-playwright","44":"tag-programming","45":"tag-pursue","46":"tag-record","47":"tag-reflects","48":"tag-says","49":"tag-school","50":"tag-screen","51":"tag-shortland","52":"tag-soap","53":"tag-stage","54":"tag-street","55":"tag-successful","56":"tag-talented","57":"tag-than","58":"tag-that","59":"tag-three","60":"tag-university","61":"tag-victoria","62":"tag-warner","63":"tag-whakaari","64":"tag-worked","65":"tag-years","66":"tag-zealand"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296170","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=296170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}