Sami splits her time between Auckland and Australia, which means real life needs to be structured \u2013 including co-parenting Billie-Jean, her daughter with her former partner Pip \u201cLadyhawke\u201d Brown. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a super supportive family, and we\u2019ve got a good system going on where it\u2019s like, \u2018okay, who\u2019s doing school drop-offs this week?\u2019 And my daughter\u2019s going to come over here to join me for a little bit in the school holidays and stuff, so she gets a fun holiday out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a juggle, but the pull is the work she\u2019s getting on both sides of the Ditch. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou never get bored when you\u2019re trying to master it all,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cI do love to stick my fingers in all those pies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madeleine Sami as Pasha in her TV series Super City. <\/p>\n
The former Onehunga High head girl used to run into a brick wall to make people laugh as a kid, she tells me. Today, she\u2019s smashing through metaphorical career walls as one of our premier artistic exports.<\/p>\n
Bursting on screen as Dr Shivani Naran on Shortland Street in 1998 when she was still a teen, in her latest role she is taking over Paul Henry\u2019s hosting spot in the latest season of The Traitors New Zealand. <\/p>\n
In between, there have been starring roles in Aussie outback comedy thriller Deadloch, local pregnancy comedy Double Parked, Taika Waititi\u2019s pirate caper Our Flag Means Death and the upcoming comedy The Sanctuary from Saturday Night Live UK duo Laura Daniel and Joseph Moore.<\/p>\n
Sami\u2019s directing chops are nothing to scoff at, either. She co-directed and starred in 2018 film The Breaker Upperers with Jackie van Beek. It\u2019s still one of the top 20 highest-grossing Kiwi films of all time, earning more than $1 million at the local box office.<\/p>\n
For someone with decades of experience, Sami, 46, admits things were rather uncertain in the beginning, particularly for a woman who wanted to make people laugh. After all, Billy T James was the pinnacle of New Zealand comedy, and Sami says there was a feeling no one was going to be funnier than him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first got into the industry, there was a lot of cringe around New Zealand TV and New Zealand culture. I think shows like Outrageous Fortune really kind of broke through to the New Zealand audience and reflected us back to ourselves in such an entertaining way that we were able to go, \u2018hey, we can make really good work about ourselves and enjoy it\u2019,” she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now we\u2019ve got so many world-class comedians on the world stage, your Rose Matafeos, your Guy Montgomerys, your Laura Daniels and your Joseph Moores, who are just smashing it with our real distinct brand of New Zealand comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although it \u201csounds clich\u00e9\u201d, she credits her mother, Christine, for inspiring her to persevere. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t grow up with a lot. I grew up pretty poor. It would have been really easy for Mum to go, \u2018no, you\u2019re not getting into the arts, you\u2019re going to be a lawyer or a doctor, and you\u2019re going to make money so you don\u2019t grow up poor\u2019. But she never stopped us. She always encouraged us quietly to do whatever we loved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madeleine Sami says The Traitors is as real as it gets. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n
Her new role pushes the boat out once again. Sami hadn\u2019t seen much of The Traitors before signing on to replace Paul Henry; she\u2019s not a huge fan of reality TV, though she\u2019s no stranger to hosting, thanks to The Great Kiwi Bake-Off.<\/p>\n
Based on the Dutch series De Verraders, Traitors follows strangers living in a mansion together, earning a prize pot of cash through challenges. All the while, three traitors are scheming to murder (eliminate) the the faithful each night, while the faithful try to banish anyone they think might be a traitor. Think Survivor meets Cluedo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love that it\u2019s a game of strategy and deception. I love that people go in with a desire to win and then betray each other in their desire to win. I love that it starts as a fun game, and then everyone gets emotionally invested and gets very intense. It\u2019s the wide spectrum of human emotion, and it\u2019s chaos to watch, but so much fun,\u201d Sami says.<\/p>\n
She got the call-up to host the show\u2019s third season \u201cin the very last second\u201d after Henry was named as host of The Chase New Zealand \u2013 and eventually a board member of TVNZ. Traitors NZ screens on Three.<\/p>\n