Inner drive helps actor reach goal - March 2016

WINGS OF SUCCESS: Skateboarder Jharaiz Kiriona's acting career has taken flight.

Jharaiz Kiriona brought his understanding of personal struggles and skating prowess to his award-winning role in his film Wings.

Kiriona, of Tainui on his mother Lee Williams' side, and Ngati Apa from his father Lez, was back in Whanganui recently after winning best actor in Te Tohu Ahuatanga Maori Award at the fourth Tropfest NZ film festival.

The 2016 Tropfest celebration and awards were held at the Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth at the end of February.

The former Wanganui High School student directed and acted in the short film Wings, where he played a character whose father was a violent man, and who meets a girl with a dream of flying and through the friendship finds peace.

The theme for 2016 Tropfest was "Dream" and the short films - of seven minutes or less - had to include that theme to be portrayed however the filmaker chose.

Kiriona admits to strategising how he wants his life to be.

"I have a lot of faith and trust," he says - which is why he just "let go on the set while filming".

Now 25, he returned to Auckland last weekend where he will pursue acting outside of his job as a barista.

Articulate and thoughtful, Kiriona said he always had a lot of drive growing up in Whanganui.

After leaving Whanganui High School he headed to Wellington where he studied computer graphics, but then decided to return to his home town to hang out with his dad Lez.

He spent a couple of years at River City Boxing, having started the sport when he was aged 16.

"I had so much energy which I needed to channel. I trained 12 times a week on conditioning and body weight exercises."

After spending a year with his father, Kiriona returned to Wellington where he worked at Weta Workshops in the leather room making pieces for the Orcs in The Hobbit. It was his first glimpse into filmmaking, but he had always wanted to act.

"My default is observing people ... ever since I was a kid.

"I wanted to play people.

"One of my biggest inspirations [for a character] is a good friend."

Heath Ledger's character in the Australian drama Candy is another inspiration for Kiriona; it's a character's real life struggles that interests him.

Kiriona's mother Lee's work ethic has inspired him to be continually striving, he says.

Wings producer Georgina Bloomfield invited Kiriona to co-write where they spent two months in collaboration, two months of pre-production, three days filming and 45 days editing.