Shorty actor Feleti tells 'MY MUM MADE ME A STAR!

Shortland Street's cutest kid and his adoring mother open up about special bond

- Trudi Nelson

Don’t tell this Auckland mama she needs to get off Facebook – the social media site delivered Tess Aulika one of the best gifts ever while she was pregnant with her son Feleti!

Sprawled on the sofa, scrolling through her feed, with just a few weeks to go before the birth of her second child, Tess spotted a post asking for Auckland mums to contact Shortland Street producers if they were due to give birth within the month and, even better, if they were part Samoan.

Tick on the timing, tick on the ethnicity. “Why not?” thought Samoan-Niuean beauty Tess, now 33.

“We came onto the set to audition and we were the only family who applied. They didn’t want me on screen, thank goodness – I just had to provide the prop!”

“I don’t remember that,” chimes in Feleti, now six years old, with a big smile. “I was in my mummy’s tummy.”

Fans of the TVNZ 2 drama will of course recognise the cutie as Shorty’s Pele Kruse, the son of nurses Vinnie (the late Pua Magasiva) and Nicole Miller (Sally Martin).

Having been in front of cameras since he was just two weeks old, Feleti tells Woman’s Day, “I’m a bit shy, but I really like it, the acting.”

And he enjoys the perks too. Pre-COVID, the entire Aulika whaÌ„nau enjoyed a trip to Fiji that only could’ve happened thanks to his wages.

“Yep, Feleti paid his own way,” laughs Tess.