Jon Gadsby

Jon Gadsby was born in Derbyshire, UK in 1953 and moved to New Zealand with his parents eight years later and was brought up in the city of Invercargill. After studying Law at Otago University he worked in the law for a short time before pursuing an interest which was to turn into a career in writing and broadcasting. Since beginning work in these fields in 1975, he has been active in radio as a writer, producer, on air personality and character voice, and in television as an actor, writer, creative producer and director.

Over the past 20 something years Jon has written or co written well over 250 hours of prime time television, and has appeared as lead actor in almost 400 programmes. Some of the highlights in film and television are: Mutiny on the Bounty, with Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day Lewis, Mel Gibson and Liam Neeson; Second Time Lucky, with Robert Morley and Sir Robert Helpmann; A Week of It, McPhail and Gadsby shows, and the award winning comedy/ drama Letter to Blanchy.

In the process, Jon has picked up five awards for Best Television Entertainment Programme, Best Television Entertainer, three final nominations for Best Television Actor, and a joint award for Best Television Script. In 1992 he was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for services to broadcasting.

In the area of writing for children Jon has been involved in a large number of programmes as writer, actor, producer and director for children’s television. Since Jon’s first book in 1985, he has written or co-written more than 20 books for children.

In between television projects, Jon has completed his first novel and is working on several more books, as well as numerous debating and public speaking engagements, corporate video training, and seminar work on and around the subject of writing for television. He was a weekly columnist for the New Zealand Herald and contributes regular features to Metro magazine.

In 2003 Jon moved back to Christchurch and became the editor of a new lifestyle magazine called AVENUES. Since he finished there in 2008 when the magazine was sold he has been busy acting, writing and performing.