Broken Hearted ‘We lost tōtara'

A POWERFUL VOICE FALLS QUIET

Trailblazing playwright and actor Nancy Brunning has died after a long battle with cancer. She was 48.

Nancy, who grew up in Taupo, became a household name in the early 1990s when she played no-nonsense nurse Jaki Manu in the original cast of homegrown soap Shortland Street.

She is credited with leaving a lasting legacy of Maori stories and characters, both in the theatre and in cinema.

Nancy won many awards during a career that spanned three decades, including the best actress award at the St Tropez Festival de Antipodes two years ago for her leading role in Mahana, and the best actress award at the 1999 New Zealand Film and Television Awards for What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?