TEUILA BLAKELY - 'THE JOB THAT CHANGED MY LIFE'

Twenty years after being cast on C4, the star reflects on her big break and why she refuses to have a mid-life crisis

- Elisabeth Easther

Teuila Blakely always felt that big things were in store for her. Even after falling pregnant at 16 and having her staunch Mormon mother disown her, she didn't let go of her dreams.

"I still can't believe it was such an issue - me having this beautiful baby - but I did what I had to do to get by, working around the clock in retail to provide for my son," the Samoan-born star recalls.

Teuila, now 48, also became more determined than ever to find ways to soar.

"I had this unshakeable ambition to get into the entertainment industry, but because I had no qualifications, when I wasn't working, I'd things like be an extra on TV shows or volunteer at 531PI, the Pacific Island radio station, because I decided that if nothing in my life made sense, I might as well aim for impossible things." 

That tenacity saw Teuila stand out and when Niu FM launched in 2001, Teuila was offered a role on air, which kick-started her transition from retail to radio. "I tried out for every opportunity going, but because I was Polynesian and we weren't considered mainstream enough, I was rarely offered work."

However, when TVNZ launched the weekend music channel M2, Teuila landed the midnight-to-dawn shift. She laughs, "After only six weeks on air, the show was cancelled, but just a few weeks later, I spotted an ad calling for presenters for TV3's new music channel."

With six weeks of screentime on VHS tapes, Teuila cut together a showreel of highlights from M2.

"The following Thursday morning, producer Andrew Szusterman calls and tells me that even though auditions for C4 had closed, they'd just seen my tape and would see me - if I could get there in 30 minutes."