INFO
| Name | Marianne Infante (she/her) |
| Born | 1995 |
| Country of Birth | Philippines |
| Place of Residence | Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland |
| Ethnicities | Filipino (Kapampangan) |
| Artform | Screen, Theatre |
| Decades Active | 2020s, 2010s |
ABOUT
Marianne Infante is an interdisciplinary Kapampángan actor, producer, writer and movement artist. She is also a creative producer at Proudly Asian Theatre and the co-founder and co-creator of Filipino production company Te & Kuya Collaborative.
At age 11, Infante moved to Ōtautahi Christchurch with her family from San Fernando, Pampanga, Philippines. After high school, at the age of 18, she relocated by herself to Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland to study a Bachelor of Performing Arts in Screen and Theatre Acting at Unitec, which she graduated with in 2016.
As a young playwright, Infante developed her first theatre script PINAY through Proudly Asian Theatre’s Fresh Off the Page initiative in 2018. Infante calls it her first big break and in an interview with TVNZ, shares that writing and starring in it "...was when I felt most comfortable in my own skin, my culture, and in the profession I am most passionate about". PINAY merges Marianne’s semi-autobiographical experiences of assimilation and migration with the geological catastrophes of the Philippines’ Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption and the Christchurch earthquakes. It premiered at Basement Theatre in 2019. The production made history as Aotearoa’s first Filipino-Kiwi multilingual theatre script and production, and it won the 2019 Auckland Theatre Awards’ Excellence Award for Overall Production.
In 2021, Infante made history as Nurse Madonna Diaz, the first ever Filipino core cast member in New Zealand’s longest-running hospital-themed TV show Shortland Street. In an interview with Stuff, Infante muses:
It’s not a space I ever envisioned being a part of. I’m like ‘what’s a brown person like me going to do on screen?’...I'm grateful to be able to flesh out this Filipino character within this institution that has been on our screens for almost 30 years.
She doesn’t take this privilege lightly and shares “landing the role in Shortland Street could help pave the way for more Filipinos to be represented in New Zealand TV.”
In line with her kaupapa of seeing more Filipinos represented in New Zealand television, Infante with fellow Filipino actor Marwin Silerio, founded and created Te & Kuya Collaborative with the aim of celebrating and empowering Filipino creatives, stories and voices. One of Infante’s biggest dreams is “normalising our moreno/morena faces onscreen”. In an interview with Stuff, Infante said: “We’re well overdue for our specific voice and story to take up space. We are so ready to take charge of our own narrative.”
Infante is also actively involved in representing actors’ rights and is an Equity elected board member and a New Zealand representative for the International Federation of Actors (FIA) and part of the global union to establish FIA’s youth committee called FIA FUTURE NOW.
LINKS
‘A chat with… Shortland Street's Marianne Infante’ — Stuff
‘Waving the Filipino flag on Aotearoa screens’ — Asia Media Centre
‘We All Come From a Place of Minority’ — The Big Idea
‘This Pinay actress is a star in New Zealand’s longest-running medical drama’ — ANC
Key works / presentations
As an actor:
2021 – Shortland Street
2021 – Three Dots
2020 – Othello, Ugly Shakespeare Company
2019 – Frickin Dangerous SpaceMas, Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
2019 – About Others, TEMPO
2019 – Life is Easy, TVNZ
2019 – Tide Waits For No Man: Episode Grace, PAT and Spooky Antix
As an actor and playwright:
2021 – Mekeni, short film
2019 – PINAY, Basement Theatre, Tāmaki Makaurau
Key awards
2022 – NZ Web Fest: Best Actress – Narrative (Mekeni)
2021 – Filipino-Kiwi Hero Awards: Outstanding Stage Performer
2019 – Theatre Awards: Excellence for Overall Production (PINAY)
2018 – Auckland Theatre Awards: Outstanding Newcomer Award
