Twenty years ago, Natano Keni was an acting hopeful from Upper Hutt when he headed into town for an audition at Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School. There, Keni faced a panel of eight, but he didn’t recognise one selector who was, like him, Samoan. “Because I was such a young buck, I didn’t notice him in the room,” he says. “Most of them were Pālagi and I was trying to please them. I remember sitting in there for a big group audition. We were presenting our Shakespeare and doing improvisations.
“I was asked to do an improv with a young lady and it went on for a little bit of time and a booming voice came up from the panel, ‘GET TO THE
