Dianna Fuemana

Dianna Fuemana is an award-winning playwright, director and filmmaker. Born in Tamaki Makaurau, New Zealand her father is from Mutalau, Niue and her mother is from A’oloau, American Sāmoa.

Dianna penned her first produced play in 1998, a one woman-show entitled Mapaki.  She is credited with being the first New Zealand Pacific playwright to merge the Niue and New Zealand-born way of life in professional theatre. In 1999 she was nominated at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards for Outstanding New Writer and Most Promising Female Actress of the Year. Mapaki toured New Zealand, United States and Greece. Her second play, Jingle Bells premiered in Auckland in 2001. 

Dianna completed a Master of Creative and Performing Arts (Honours) in 2005 at the University of Auckland, writing her third play The Packer during her study. The Packer was performed in New Zealand, Australia, Los Angeles and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Her fourth play, My Mother Dreaming premiered in Auckland in 2005.

Falemalama was produced during a residency in 2006 at the Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis, USA. The show toured to the 10th Festival of Pacific Arts in Pago Pago 2008, Niue Arts Festival 2009 and the Planet Indigenous Festival in Toronto 2009. Birds was developed for and premiered at the Niue Arts and Culture Festival in 2011. The show toured to the 11th Festival of Pacific Arts in Honiara, Solomon Islands before returning to New Zealand for an Auckland, Wellington season. 

In 2012, Dianna was the recipient of Script to Screen’s US Screenwriting Scholarship Internship to independent film company ‘Killer Films’ in New York. Her debut short film Sunday Fun Day won the ImagineNATIVE Film and Media Arts Festival Sun Jury Prize in Toronto, 2017. She wrote and directed the Niue section of the critically acclaimed film Vai, a portmanteau film that brings together the work of eight Pasifika female directors in 2019. Mysterious Ways a feature film co-written by Dianna was released across New Zealand cinemas in 2023 to rave reviews.