Actress Bronwyn Turei ‘I'M HAVING A LITTLE GO GIRL!'

She might be 'last cab off the rank', but the TV star is finally ready to be a mum

- Elisabeth Easther

Born and raised in TairaÌ„whiti/Gisborne, former Go Girls star Bronwyn Turei always figured she’d be young when she started a family.

“Because of the environment I grew up in, I thought I’d be a teen mum,” smiles the actress, who’s of Nga-ti Porou descent. “My cousin and I imagined we’d be young parents together, hanging out with our kids and being cool, but while she ended up having a bubba at 19, I followed a different path.”

Also a talented musician, Bronwyn, now 38, was instead lured into the performing arts. After seeing Madeleine Sami in a touring production of No. 2, she realised acting could be a career, rather than just a hobby, and enrolled at drama school in Auckland.

Four years after graduating, having honed her craft in children’s theatre while working shifts at Burger King and performing in pubs, Bronwyn landed her big break in 2008, when she was cast as tomboy Cody Latimer in Go Girls, alongside seasoned actors Anna Hutchison and Jay Ryan.

“Before Go Girls, I’d only ever done one ad, so it was a steep learning curve,” she tells Woman’s Day. “I asked a lot of questions and the crew was really patient. Jay and Anna helped me immensely with figuring out the craft.”

As Bronwyn’s acting career took off, those plans to be a young mum kept getting put off and she figured she’d be “over the hill” if she had children after 30. However, along the way, she came to realise that the best time to have kids is when you’ve met the right person.