Fern Sutherland

Fern Sutherland
Born (1987-10-17) 17 October 1987 (age 37)
New Plymouth, New Zealand
OccupationActress
Years active2006 – present
Spouse
Jarrod Kilner
​
​
(m. 2017; div. 2022)​
[1][2][3]

Fern Sutherland is a New Zealand actress, best known for her roles as Dawn in The Almighty Johnsons,[4] and Detective Sims in The Brokenwood Mysteries.

Career

Starting her career as a lead artiste in short films produced by the UNITEC Performing Arts School, Sutherland pursued her acting work in theatre shows like Silo Theatre's Ensemble Project 08, the Auckland Theatre Company’s The Pohutakawa Tree (2009) and The End of the Golden Weather (2011), among others. Later, she ventured into television plays for South Pacific Pictures, doing small roles in Go Girls and The Almighty Johnsons.[5] Most recently Sutherland has shared top billing in the series The Brokenwood Mysteries.[6]

She has said of herself, "I get extreme stage fright and really bad anxiety, so by rights acting is probably the worst career choice for me, but the truth is I really love being able to create and bring characters to life."[7]

Sutherland received a nomination for best supporting actress at the 2011 Aotearoa Film and Television Awards (AFTAs) for her role in The Almighty Johnsons.[5]

She moved to Canada at the end of 2018 with her partner of 10 years, before returning to New Zealand in 2020 to ensure she could continue filming for The Brokenwood Mysteries without disruption from COVID-19 border closures.[8][9] After the end of her relationship in 2022, she has split her time between New Zealand and Thailand, where she spends months at a time practicing Muay Thai in Phuket.[3]

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2006 A Book By Its Cover[10] Lead Dir: Campbell Rousselle
2007 Trash Poppy Dir: John Callen
2010 Thud Nurse Dir: Nick Graham
2024 The Mountain Wendy Dir: Rachel House
2024 A Mistake Jessica Dir: Christine Jeffs

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2010 Go Girls Drunk Girl #3 "Boys Behaving Badly" (S02E09)
2011-2013 The Almighty Johnsons Dawn Series regular
2014–present The Brokenwood Mysteries Detective Kristin Sims Main role

References

  1. ^ "Brokenwood's Fern I've Fallen in Love All Over Again". pressreader.com. Woman's Day via PressReader. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  2. ^ "It's almost 3 years to the day that we got married". instagram.com/fern_sutherland. Instagram from Meta. Retrieved 14 November 2024.
  3. ^ a b Clifton, Emma (28 March 2024). "Actress Fern Sutherland on Muay Thai boxing and her new movie". Now to Love - New Zealand. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
  4. ^ "The Almighty Johnsons(2011– )". imdb. Archived from the original on 18 September 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  5. ^ a b "DAWN (Fern Sutherland)". tv3.co.nz/. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  6. ^ "Almighty Johnsons star in murder mystery". The New Zealand Herald. 27 November 2023.
  7. ^ Utiger, Taryn (23 July 2013). "Almighty local love triangle". stuff.com.nz. Retrieved 29 September 2013.
  8. ^ "The health scare that sent Brokenwood Mysteries actress Fern Sutherland to Canada for respite".
  9. ^ "Brokenwood's Fern ‘I'VE FALLEN IN LOVE ALL OVER AGAIN!'". www.magzter.com. Retrieved 2 July 2024.
  10. ^ Sutherland, Fern. "Filmography". actors.co.nz. Archived from the original on 24 September 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2017.


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