About Sheree

My father's side of the family came from England settling in New Zealand in the 1800's, while on my mother's side, my grandparents were first generation immigrants from the Netherlands post World War II. I also proudly whakapapa to Ngāti Tama in Ngai Tuhoe through my grandmother. I was born and raised in Rotorua where I completed my schooling before moving to Tāmaki Makaurau to complete a Bachelor of Communication Studies (TV Production) at AUT.

I have had a varied career path, that eventually led me to nearly twenty years working in he mental health field, where I have a Masters of Social Practice and and a qualified counselor. My work here has largely involved stigma and discrimination education, and advocacy alongside one-on-one work. 

In my free time I have  always been a writer of some kind, and this included a large number of short plays as a teenager, and concentrating on songwriting from my twenties. Since diving back into theatre and focusing on playwriting in the last couple of years, I have been delighted to discover how much my work listening to people's stories, thinking about positionality, cultural narratives and taking on feedback has helped me find stories I want to tell, and a growing ability to tell them. 

I find people to be fascinating and generally very lovable  underneath all our defences and mistakes, and really enjoy getting to know the characters I write. I am constantly indebted to those friends, particularly in theatre who listen, contribute and extend my work, as a lot of my energy for writing comes from these interactions.  

I live in South Auckland where I am actively involved in my local theatres, picking up rubbish, combating Moth Plant and walking my energetic fox terrier Ngākau.