Actor and director Simon Prast has joined the race for the new Auckland Super City mayoralty, along with current contenders Auckland City Mayor John Banks and Manukau Mayor Len Brown.

Prast is well known for his stage and television career, including Gloss and Shortland Street, and was Auckland Theatre Company's founding director (from March 1992 - February 2003).

In his announcement on TVNZ Breakfast, Simon Prast said “I’ve always had a great passion for Auckland and I feel I have played a small role in its past and I feel I have a stake in its future.”

He said he is ‘apolitical’, someone capable of representing the whole of Auckland, with no political affiliation.

Prast said his candidacy was about the vision for Auckland, which was more of a journey, not a destination.  He said the biggest challenge facing the city is the doubling in size in our lifetime.

“How we get to here from there, in peace and prosperity, without compromising the environment or our lifestyle, I think that that is the greatest challenge.”

When asked if he had the experience to achieve this, Prast said he was not sure that experience delivers results and there was a difference between output and outcome.

“It has been my professional experience that opening night means opening night, whatever forum it is. A budget is a budget, a schedule is a schedule.”

Prast said it was important to retain public assets, council control of Council Controlled Organisations, and a council and mayor who 'remain the loyal servants of the people'.

He said the Auckland Transitional Authority will hand over a structure that addresses seven key areas, and acknowledged his interest in the culture and creative sector. “We breed talent in Auckland.” As a former Waitakere resident, he was keen to implement the eco-city brand throughout the region.

More information willl be available on his website, under construction, soon.

The new Auckland Council elections are in October this year.

Auckland Theatre Company bio

“Simon graduated from Theatre Corporate Drama School in 1984. He went on to perform at the Mercury and Downstage Theatres. His television appearances include Gloss, Shortland Street, Hercules, Xena Warrior Princess, Erebus: The Aftermath and Serial Killers.
His film appearances include When Love Comes, The Sinking Of The Rainbow Warrior and You Move, You Die. Simon was Auckland Theatre Company's (ATC) founding director from March 1992 - February 2003.

During his tenure, he produced and / or directed over sixty mainbill productions including The Graduate, The Rocky Horror Show, Hair, Death of a Salesman, Haruru Mai, The Daylight Athiest, Wit, Art, Closer, The Judas Kiss, A Streetcar Named Desire and 12 Angry Men (which was voted 'Production of the Decade' by ATC Subscribers).

He directed the inaugural Auckland Festival, AK03, later voted ‘Event of the Year’ in the 2003 Metro Readers Poll. The same poll voted Simon ‘Auckland Man of the Year’, an acclaim he shared with then-Mayor John Banks!”