Liv Parker is an actress and comedian who hails from Ōtautahi, now based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Liv has built a diverse body of work across television, theatre and the digital mediums since graduating from Te Kura Toi Whakaari O Aotearoa: NZ Drama School in 2017. At the centre of all her work is a curiosity about the weird, wonderfully embarrassing and often tender experiences of human nature.
Her debut hour “Werewolves, Vampires and Harry Styles” landed her the Directors Choice Award at the 2023 New Zealand International Comedy Festival, and she has gone on to write, perform and sell out her own original works. She isa member of the Auckland improv collective Heartthrobs and you may occasionally spot her hooning round the roads of Aotearoa in a quarter of a car for Sparks latest campaign, or prancing about on a beautiful beach in Northland, pretending to be moderately okay at puzzles, trying her messy best on Celebrity Treasure Island.
Here is Liv’s Shameless Plug.
My favourite local artist (that I don’t know) is Teeks!!! (though goshhhh I actually have too many to have only one favourite). I listened to his album full-blast to calm me as I had my mirena IUD inserted by the doctor to keep me calm – is that too much information? Too honest? Maybe? Oh well.
My guilty pleasure is watching Twilight at least once a month, or anytime I feel remotely stressed or overwhelmed. It's been my go to comfort watch since I was 13, and will continue to be until I am hopefully 93. It’s simply a perfect film, a perfect soundtrack, a perfect grade, perfect chemistry between Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart – Catherine Hardwicke is a master.
If I'm being fully honest with myself, and with you, I’m caught in a triangle of love between Girls, Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy. I wish I had some more artsy, intelligent, poetic answers but I can't deny the power of a great medical drama, okay!!
I recently rewatched Girls again, from start to finish, and Lena Dunham took my entire life hostage, and I loved every second of it. “I don’t want to freak you out … but I think I might be the voice of my generation.” Lena Dunham said no lies.
My closest collaborator would have to be my big brilliant brother Chris Parker. A collaboration that began 30 years ago and will continue for a lifetime. I know I'll never grow tired of collaborating with my best mate. He makes me laugh harder than anyone I know and I can 10000% trust he will always give me the straight truth. Our stage has evolved from our family kitchen to the Basement Theatre, and I can't wait to see where we might journey to next.
My favorite podcast is Las Culturistas!!!!! Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers, two deeply funny yet also incredibly insightful best mates, talking all things pop culture and interviewing some huge names. They have this incredible skill to be so disarmingly endearing with their guests that it always brings out the most authentic, hilarious yet often also very earnest chats. It’s my go to comfort listen when I'm in the car stuck in some harrowing Friday afternoon Tāmaki motorway traffic, and instantly they lift my mood. Also I cannot not mention the best pod in Aotearoa – Rats in the Gutter. Johanna Cosgrove and Samuel Te Kani make me scream with delight. I could listen to them and their perfect chemistry, and quick, sharp wit for forever and a day.
My most embarrassing career moment was in my first year at drama school. We had to make our own 20 minute solo piece of theatre at the end of the year. I had previously just watched Trygve Wakenshaw’s show ‘Kraken’ and it blew my mind. I laughed so hard and I decided there and then I would use this process of crafting a 20 minute solo to try and learn how to be a clown. I often find the process of making any shows in the realm of comedy to be a deeply unfunny process. Which leads me to my most embarrassing moment, doing a show to my classmates and tutors where I ended it completely covered, head to toe, in tomato sauce. You could hear a pin drop. Utter silence. I wanted the ground to swallow me whole.
The only person who said anything after an uncomfortable length of silence was the lighting tutor who raised her hand and said “The smell of tomato sauce actually makes me feel really sick, so I have to leave” as she ran out of the theatre.
The best advice I’ve received was from my dad. The guy is overflowing with wisdom.
He really drilled into me from the very beginning that you can have all the talent in the world, be the hardest working in the room, but if folk don’t find pleasure in working alongside you, then forget about the rest. This has really stuck with me over the trajectory of my career so far. I reckon if I were to dream about what I might want for my legacy in the future, it’s that the people that I collaborate with on mahi felt seen, safe and respected. And that we could have a big giant laugh together no matter how hearty or hard the process was.
My favourite arts space is a theatre that I love so much I have already mentioned them twice – Basement Theatre. The second home to so many artists in this city. My love for the Basement Theatre courses so deep in my veins. Every nook and cranny of it. I have seen shows there that have inspired me so much that I left the theatre with this sensation of adrenaline, so intense it’s as if I had been shocked by lightning. I have cried from stress and utter fear there while standing in the theatre/dressing room – terrified at the prospect of doing the show whilst being nowhere near finished our tech plot the night before, I have done countless nervous poos in the wharepaku there before performing (whilst also admiring the posters of my friends draped across the walls of the toilet cubicle). I have made very special mates there, and hopefully no enemies there. I have felt so incredibly socially awkward and alien there, and also have felt like my most silly, empowered, and extroverted self there. It’s home, and the folk who live and visit there are simply the best.
The most fun I’ve ever had on a project was a show I made with my two best mates Ari Osborne and Tess Sullivan, Before Karma Gets Us. I admire Ari and Tess completely and whole heartedly. A reviewer described it as “The Prestige, if it was re-imagined by the Three Stooges.” It was us three fresh drama school graduates, some homemade red velvet curtains placed on some op-shopped wooden doors as our set, some very bizarre props and a show made up entirely of sketch, magic and tomfoolery. We had no money but huge ambition. We worked tirelessly in Ari’s flat's outdoor empty garage every night for a month after our respective retail/hospo jobs. We took the work ultra seriously, but never took ourselves seriously. We laughed our way through that entire process, and opened our show in The Basement Studio to a kind and warm crowd who at the end of the show gave us a standing ovation and I remember standing there, covered in fake blood, dripping in sweat and thinking – it.doesn’t.get.bettter.than.this!!!!!!
The place I feel the most creative is when I am taking a long stride out in the open air, with music blasting in my ears. Every walk the music will be a different flavour, whether it be the complete soundtrack of Les Miserables, my favourite Marlon Williams album or every hit from Brat and it’s Completely Different But It’s Also Still Brat by Charli xcx.
You best believe you see me walking with purpose in a park with my headphones in, my mind is deeeeeply occupied in some form of elaborate daydream fantasy. Also why is it that when I’m in the shower I will always think of my most favourite ideas for next potential creative pursuits.
My shameless plug is a mighty play. Playfight with Silo Theatre Company, written by Julia Grogan. I feel deeply grateful to be involved in this one. Like someone pinch me levels of gratitude. The writing is incredibly funny, sharp and devastating all at the same time. The team is honestly iconic. Ana Chaya Scotney, Mirabai Pease, directed by Brita McVeigh, and a whole bunch of other deeply talented legends working furiously behind the scenes. I reckon it’s gonna be quite special, and between you and me, I’m learning HEAPS.
So please, please, pretty pretty please come along! It's on until 30 May, at the Silo Hall on East Street in Auckland.
