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Areas of Expertise

Comedy
Performance
Do these work here for me?What expertise to note here?

I WONDER IF I REMOVE EXPERTISE AND PUT CONTACTS HERE - OR IF I KEEP EXPERTISE I ADD CONTACTS UNDERNEATH.

Charlie Bleakley is a writer-director who only rarely refers to himself in the third person.

A New Zealander who resides in Melbourne, he treks between the two Australasian continents creating work that makes you laugh and/or makes you think.

With an enigmatic history as both and actor and an editor, Charlie brings a unique mix of performance direction and post-production craft to his projects. Originally from a government town he is also a master of making commercial work for clients with catchy acronyms like ACC, NZTA, MSD, NZIC, WOW, and Google.

His short film Coconut (a film that comments on race, sexism, and violence on screen, clumsily wrapped in the guise of a bromantic comedy) premiered at the NZ International Film Festival, was a finalist for two NZ Film Awards, a NZ Writer’s Guild Award, and won People’s Choice Award a the Oscar accredited Show Me Shorts Film Festival - among other smaller and less significant awards that would be embarrassing to mention. He is now in development with the NZFC for his first feature film Banana.

Charlie’s approach is ideal for clients who enjoy working in a collaborative & enthusiastic environment telling beautifully crafted stories that are authentic, engaging, and intelligent.

Claims to fame:

  • Was famous in NZ as a child actor and is still sensitive about it.

  • Has worked with all the famous people you’ve ever heard of from NZ (accept for Sam Neill, but he used to flat with his Mum).

  • An MP complained about his podcast in an official parliamentary committee getting NZ on Air funding because of a quote from a nationally beloved breakfast TV host on the show who said “They opened up my desk, and shat in my desk.”

  • He made a WWII film for the NZ 48 Hour Film Competition that was selected as the ‘Wildcard’ entry into the National Finals by Sir Peter Jackson… oh, did I mention the short film was shot entirely in miniature with live mice as actors? Weird.

  • Can reliably cast an actor off 15 seconds of audition tape.

Charlie is represented by the Dusty Road Agency for all creative, broadcast, and commercial work.