Michael Bennett (film director)

Michael Te Arawa Bennett is a New Zealand writer, screenwriter and director for film and television.

Career
He is the co-creator, writer, showrunner and executive producer of TVNZ's Vegas. He is also the author of In Dark Places, a study of the wrongful conviction of Teina Pora for the 1992 murder of Susan Burdett, which won the 2017 Ngaio Marsh crime writing award. His 2022 crime novel, Better the Blood, was shortlisted for the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction at the 2023 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards and for the Best Novel at the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards.

Partial filmography

 * Vegas – 2021 (Writer/Producer, Television Series)
 * In Dark Places – 2018 (Writer/Director, Television Film)
 * Matariki – 2010 (Writer/Director, Feature Film ) – Toronto International Film Festival
 * Outrageous Fortune – 2005–2007 (Writer/Director, Television Series)
 * Maddigan's Quest – 2006 (Writer, Television Series)
 * The Lost Children – 2006 (Writer, Television Series)
 * Kerosene Creek – 2004 (Writer/Director, Short Film) – Berlin Film Festival
 * Cow – 2002 (Writer/Director, Short Film) – Cannes Film Festival
 * Mataku – 2002 (Writer/Director, Television Series)
 * Street Legal – 2000 (Writer, Television Series)
 * Michelle's Third Novel – 1994 (Writer, Short Film) – opened for Pulp Fiction at the New York Film Festival

Personal life

 * He and actor Manu Bennett are cousins.
 * He is Maori and is of Te Arawa descent.