Alongside a successful career in musical theatre in Australia, actor Ross Girven has tackled a variety of television roles on both sides of the Tasman, and starred in landmark 1987 New Zealand film Ngati.

He debuted on television here in trucking drama Roche, then had roles in a run of TV shows in the 1980s such as Peppermint Twist and The Marching Girls. Girven has also acted in Gloss and Shortland Street, and movie thriller Dangerous Orphans. More recently, he has appeared in Aussie cop show Water Rats, and NZ dramas Orange Roughies and The Cult.

In this ScreenTalk, Girven talks about:

• Joining a mostly female cast on The Marching Girls
• Feeling that Peppermint Twist was ahead of its time
• How the location of Ngati became a spiritual home for him
• Being upset that Gloss was cancelled
• Enjoying working with Lisa Crittenden (aka Robo-nurse) on Shortland Street
• How editing changed the nature of the film Dangerous Orphans
• Loving the scripts on The Cult but feeling the final product didn’t quite deliver
• Getting to shave his head on the set of Legend of the Seeker

This video is available on YouTube to embed and distribute via a Creative Commons licence.

NZ On Screen: Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside