Lara Macgregor

Bio

Lara works as an actor, director, and performance coach in theatre and film in New Zealand.

She studied acting in New York City with Uta Hagen, Anthony Abeson and Tony Greco and subsequently worked for ten years as an actor in the U.S.

She holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Directing from The National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney and has directed over 40 productions in the last decade.

In 2009, Lara was appointed Associate Artistic Director at The Court Theatre in Christchurch, and in 2010 became Artistic Director at Fortune Theatre in Dunedin. Her directing highlights include Red; In the Next Room (or the vibrator play); Play; Tribes; Souvenir; The Caretaker; Punk Rock; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Rent The Musical.

Since 2015 she has been freelancing across all disciplines with multiple companies including; South Pacific Pictures, Auckland Theatre Company, The Court Theatre, Circa Theatre, Centrepoint Theatre, The Actors’ Program, the Pan Asian Theatre Collective and the University of Otago Theatre Studies.

Recent acting credits include: Fran in Things I Know to Be True Court Theatre/Circa Theatre; Annie Wilkes in Misery The Court Theatre; Deborah in the feature film Bad Behaviour Dir: Alice Englert; Mrs Roidern in One of Us is Lying Netflix, Sgt Gillian Carmichael in Clickbait Netflix and Moira Pierce on Shortland Street.

Lara has her own company, Birds of a Feather. She has produced and directed Suzie Miller's global sensation Prima Facie, and Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donohoe. This year she was invited to direct the first show in The Court Theatre's new $56 Million theatre, the NZ Classic, End of the Golden Weather by Bruce Mason, adapted by Raymond Hawthorne.