The King's Speech What My Girl Needs To Know

Mike and Alex Tell Why She’s Following in His Footsteps

- Amy Prebble

Promising young actress Alex King has inherited a lot from her famous dad, Kiwi comedian and mental health advocate Mike, including a wide smile, breezy candour and effortless charisma.

It’s little wonder then that she’s following in his footsteps and forging a career in the entertainment industry. At 21, she’s already the host of radio station Flava’s day show and she’s just landed her first big theatre role.

Alex has always loved acting, but after finishing school thought it would be prudent to do a law degree at Victoria University. “It was a bit of shock to everyone,” she laughs.

“Everyone knew me as the drama and music girl. They were kind of like, ‘Ah, okay, what are you doing?’ But I did it anyway.”

Yet, it quickly became clear to Alex and her family that her heart wasn’t in it.

“I went down and dragged her out,” says Mike. “I didn’t put her through schooling to go down there and hate what she’s doing. I watched her become more and more isolated and confused. The effect it was having on Alex’s mental health just wasn’t worth it. I wanted her to do something she was actually passionate about.”

So Mike (57) packed Alex up and shifted her back to Auckland, where she found a flat with three others, got a retail job to tide her over and threw herself into studying with American actor Michael Saccente. It was through that course that Alex got an acting agent and met radio host Sarah Gandy, who used to be part of the The Hits breakfast team with Sam Wallace and Toni Street.

“Sarah knew I hated my job,” tells Alex. “She said I should try to get a job as a roadrunner or promo girl for Flava and got me a meeting.”