Marianne Infante

INFO

NameMarianne Infante (she/her)
Born1995
Country of BirthPhilippines
Place of ResidenceTāmaki Makaurau Auckland
EthnicitiesFilipino (Kapampangan)
ArtformScreen, Theatre
Decades Active2020s, 2010s

ABOUT

Marianne Infante is an interdisciplinary Kapampángan actor, producer, writer and movement artist. She is also a creative producer at Proudly Asian Theatre and the co-founder and co-creator of Filipino production company Te & Kuya Collaborative.

At age 11, Infante moved to Ōtautahi Christchurch with her family from San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines. After high school, at the age of 18, she relocated by herself to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to study a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Screen and Theatre Acting at Unitec, which she graduated with in 2016.

As a young playwright, Infante developed her first theatre script PINAY through Proudly Asian Theatre’s Fresh Off the Page initiative in 2018. Infante calls it her first big break and in an interview with TVNZ, shares that writing and starring in it "...was when I felt most comfortable in my own skin, my culture, and in the profession I am most passionate about". PINAY merges Marianne’s semi-autobiographical experiences of assimilation and migration with the geological catastrophes of the Philippines’ Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption and the Christchurch earthquakes. It premiered at Basement Theatre in 2019. The production made history as Aotearoa’s first Filipino-Kiwi multilingual theatre script and production, and it won the 2019 Auckland Theatre Awards’ Excellence Award for Overall Production.

In 2021, Infante made history as Nurse Madonna Diaz, the first ever Filipino in New Zealand’s longest running hospital-themed TV show Shortland Street. In an interview with Stuff, Infante muses:

It’s not a space I ever envisioned being a part of. I’m like ‘what’s a brown person like me going to do on screen?’...I'm grateful to be able to flesh out this Filipino character within this institution that has been on our screens for almost 30 years.

She doesn’t take this privilege lightly and shares “landing the role in Shortland Street could help pave the way for more Filipinos to be represented in New Zealand TV.”

In line with her kaupapa of seeing more Filipinos represented in New Zealand television, Infante with fellow Filipino actor Marwin Silerio, founded and created Te & Kuya Collaborative with the aim of celebrating and empowering Filipino creatives, stories and voices. One of Infante’s biggest dreams is “normalising our moreno/morena faces onscreen”. In an interview with Stuff, Infante said: “We’re well overdue for our specific voice and story to take up space. We are so ready to take charge of our own narrative.”

Infante is also actively involved in representing actors’ rights and is an Equity elected board member and a New Zealand representative for the International Federation of Actors (FIA) and part of the global union to establish FIA’s youth committee called FIA FUTURE NOW.

LINKS

Key works / presentations

As an actor:
2021 – Shortland Street
2021 – Three Dots
2020 – Othello, Ugly Shakespeare Company
2019 – Frickin Dangerous SpaceMas, Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2019 – About Others, TEMPO
2019 – Life is Easy, TVNZ
2019 – Tide Waits For No Man: Episode Grace, PAT and Spooky Antix

As an actor and playwright:
2021 – Mekeni, short film
2019 – PINAY, Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau

Key awards

2022 – NZ Web Fest: Best Actress – Narrative (Mekeni)

2021 – Filipino-Kiwi Hero Awards: Outstanding Stage Performer

2019 – Theatre Awards: Excellence for Overall Production (PINAY)

2018 – Auckland Theatre Awards: Outstanding Newcomer Award

Related entries

Last updated: 3 October 2024 Suggest an Edit

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OTHER PHOTOS AND Ephemera

Five people of Asian descent smiling in front of a green background

The Proudly Asian Theatre (PAT) team

Photo by Hayden J. Weal

Poster design featuring a father and daughter sitting on a couch with the words 'Mekeni' at the top

Mekeni short film poster, 2021

Poster design by Alyssa Pua. Photo by John Rata

Many people posing for the camera on the deck of a house

Mekeni short film team, 2021

Photo by John Rata

Marianne Infante – Shortland Street Instagram video promo, 2023

Three people and and an alien wearing space suits

A Frickin Dangerous Space-Mas Christmas comedy special, Basement Theatre, 2019

Photo by Andy Crown

Five people inside a living room looking at an open laptop

On the set of the short film Three Dots, 2021

Photo by Andi Crown