James Ashcroft (Ngati Kahu/Nga Puhi)

James Ashcroft is the director of the new dark thriller The Whisper Man, starring Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, Robert DeNiro and Michael Keaton, which is now on Netflix. His previous films include the psychological horror The Rule of Jenny Pen, starring Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow, and Coming Home in the Dark, which had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. He is a graduate of Toi Whakaari: NZ Drama School, Victoria University and has studied with New York’s prestigious theatre company The Wooster Group. He served as development producer on the New Zealand Film Commission-funded feature This Town, which was released in 2020. From 2007 to 2013m he was the CEO/Artistic Director of multi-award winning Māori Theatre Company Taki Rua Productions. His short films and web series works have screened at multiple festivals. (Photo by Stan Alley.)