Byron Coll

Notes

Byron Coll is an actor and award-winning photographer. Since graduating from Toi Whakaari: New Zealand Drama School in 2007 Byron has been in demand in both New Zealand and Australia, earning a reputation as a versatile character actor. Most recently, Byron has played major supporting roles in feature films ONE WINTER alongside Minnie Driver, A MISTAKE with Elizabeth Banks, and Rachel House's directorial debut THE MOUNTAIN. He has also guest starred in Netflix series COWBOY BEBOP, LA BREA 2 and several episodes of Taika Waititi's TIME BANDITS. Amongst his nearly 20 years of working professionally on stage and screen actor, highlights include the television adaption of the Booker-prize winning novel, THE LUMINARIES, as well as feature films MURU alongside Cliff Curtis and NUDE TUESDAY. His role of ‘Penguin’ in TOP OF THE LAKE was written for him by series creator and director Jane Campion, after seeing his character work as a penguin from the award-winning play HEAT by Linda Chanwai-Earle. Byron has been awarded Actor of the Year at the Chapman Tripp Wellington Theatre Awards, and in 2020 recorded and sound engineered the ‘Artist in Residence’ podcast series for the Pantograph Punch. He is also an original cast member and ongoing contributor for Viva La Dirt League, a sketch-comedy YouTube channel with over 5 million subscribers. Alongside acting, Byron was named as one of the Top 20 emerging landscape photographers in Australasia by Capture Magazine in 2019.