Madeleine Sami

Madeleine Nalini Sami is an actress, director, comedian and musician from New Zealand. She started her acting career in theatre before eventually moving to television, where she created, wrote, and starred in Super City. She co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the 2018 film The Breaker Upperers, along with Jackie van Beek, which was a New Zealand box office success.

She co-wrote, co-directed, and starred in the 2018 film The Breaker Upperers, along with Jackie van Beek. The film received positive reviews and was a box office hit in New Zealand, becoming the best selling New Zealand film of 2018 and is one of the top 20 grossing New Zealand films ever. The pair will reunite to direct the Netflix film Hope, starring Aubrey Plaza. Sami also appeared in the 2019 film, Come to Daddy, directed by Ant Timpson.

In January 2015, Sami married Pip Brown, also known as the singer-songwriter Ladyhawke. They welcomed a baby girl on 20 October 2017.

In 2011, Sami created, wrote, and starred in her own comedy series, Super City, which was directed by Taika Waititi. Sami played five different characters in the show and won Best Performance by an Actress at the 2011 AFTA awards. She later co-hosted The Great Kiwi Bake Off and starred in the television series Golden Boy and The Bad Seed. She made her TV directorial debut when she directed an episode of the second season of Funny Girls, eventually directing eleven episodes of the series.

Sami is a part of The Sami Sisters, a musical group consisting of herself and her two sisters. They released an album Happy Heartbreak in 2011.

Sami rose to prominence starring in Toa Fraser's play Bare, winning best actress at the 1999 Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards. She then was part of Fraser's next play, No. 2., which won Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.