Ghazaleh Gol

Ghazaleh Gol (formerly Golbakhsh) is an Iranian New Zealand writer, actor, filmmaker and Fulbright scholar.

Born in Tehran, Gol was four when she immigrated with her family to Tāmaki Makaurau in 1987. Escaping political oppression and an autocratic regime, her experience of leaving war-torn Iran and growing up in Aotearoa has informed much of her work as a writer, chiefly her collection of personal essays, The Girl From Revolution Road (2020), as well as ‘Hyphenated Identity’, the chapter she contributed to the anthology Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand (2020).

Gol is a contributor to websites such as The Spinoff, where she has written candidly about not only her experience of racism and othering — for instance, as a person of Middle Eastern heritage, how she was perceived following 9/11 and the discourse around terrorism and war — but also how she channels it into storytelling:

My response to this was part anger, part cathartic. These days, I put it all into my work. I create characters that respond to this in their stories, as I would like to in real life. I give them life and in turn hope that a different viewpoint is represented.

In tandem with her writing, Gol’s filmmaking explores themes around identity and belonging. Her powerful short documentary series for RNZ, This Is Us (2020), commemorated the 15 March terror attack in Christchurch by asking Muslim New Zealanders to talk about themselves through the question, “what do you love the most?” The short films The Waiting Room (2019) and Parisa, one of eight stories in the feature film anthology Kāinga (2022), use the settings of an immigration room and a temporary home to spark conversations about homeland. These and other works in Gol’s screenography, including directing the forthcoming comedy-drama series Miles from Nowhere (2024), give voice to the Asian, Muslim and refugee diasporas.

Gol’s creativity is linked closely with her academic work. Her MA thesis documentary Iran in Transit (2012) chronicled her return to Iran, as a New Zealand citizen, after a 17-year absence. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 2012, furthering her post-graduate studies at the University of Southern California, where she also interned for the Sundance Institute. She completed her PhD with creative practice in Media and Communication with a focus on Iranian diasporic cinema at the University of Auckland in 2020.

Ghazaleh Gol’s website

Selected published articles:

‘They speak English and have good lamb’: a Kiwi immigrant’s story — The Spinoff

‘A Morality Tale for the 21st Century’ — The Pantograph Punch

‘My Battle with Body Hair: A Rant’ — Sauce Magazine

Selected interviews:

An Interview with Ghazaleh Gol — University of Auckland

Kāinga interview panel by Perlina Lau — RNZ

Bookmarks interview with Jesse Mulligan — RNZ

L’Oreal Women of Worth — MiNDFOOD

Interview by Kiran Dass — Canvas

Interview on Saturday Morning with Kim Hill — RNZ

Ghazaleh Gol in conversation with Dan Salmon — Auckland Writers Festival 2021

As director:

2024 — Miles from Nowhere (TV series), Sky/NEON
2020–present — Shortland Street (TV series), South Pacific Pictures
2017 — Glimpse (short documentary), Attitude TV

As writer/director:

2022 — Kāinga (anthology feature film), director of story ‘Parisa’
2020 — This is Us (documentary web series), RNZ
2019 — The Waiting Room (short film)
2012 — Iran in Transit (short documentary)

As writer:

2024 — Otherhood, author of 'Another Birth', Massey University Press
2023 — A Kind of Shelter Whakaruru-taha, co-author of ‘Overturning motherhood’, Massey University Press
2020 — Ko Aotearoa Tātou | We Are New Zealand, author of ‘Hyphenated Identity’, Otago University Press
2020 — The Girl From Revolution Road, Allen & Unwin NZ
2015 — Mandala (short film)