Haere mai, welcome…

This is the official site of the New Zealand Documentary Board, makers of the award-winning docu-comedy Wellington Paranormal.

Keep scrolling the scrolly thing to find out more about us…

  • Taika Waititi

    SENIOR DOCUMENTARIAN

    Taika received an Oscar® for his documentary film Jo Jo Rabbit and has also made the acclaimed documentary films Boy, Hunt For The Wilderpeople and his two-part Thor documentary series, a moving character study about a man who loses his sense of masculinity upon losing a large hammer.

  • Jemaine Clement

    SENIOR DOCUMENTARIAN

    Jemaine is an award-winning documentarian who specialises in matters of the occult. His most acclaimed documentary What We Do In The Shadows uncovered a dark but humanly unhuman underworld of vampires and nosferatu living in his hometown of Wellington. In between documentaries, he likes to busk on the streets with his folk duo Flight Of The Conchords.

  • Paul Yates

    DOCUMENTARY PRODUCER

    Paul is an award-winning documentary producer from Wellington. He won the award for swimming the width of the Rongotea School pool in 1975. Paul is probably best known for his work on the acclaimed documentary series Ultimate Garden featuring four green-thumbed couples competing for $20,000 worth of gardening implements.

The story so far…

In 2014, The New Zealand Documentary Board made the documentary What We Do In The Shadows about a group of vampires living in a flat in Wellington. In it, two police officers, Minogue and O’Leary briefly appeared to attend a noise complaint. The documentary-makers were so compelled by these two officers, that they decided to create a documentary TV series about them, following their investigations into the supernatural as members of the Wellington Police Paranormal Unit, formed by Sergeant Ruawai Maaka. That series was called Wellington Paranormal.

From 2018 to 2022, four series of Wellington Paranormal were made by The New Zealand Documentary Board for TVNZ to huge critical acclaim and ratings success. The show has since screened in The U.S. on The CW network and on streaming service HBO Max; in the U.K. on Sky Comedy; and on various other channels around the world. To date, the escapades of Officers Minogue and O’Leary and their boss Sergeant Maaka can be seen in 105 territories worldwide.

In its four-season run, Wellington Paranormal has won Best Comedy twice, Best Comedy Writing three times and Best Actor once for Mike Minogue at the New Zealand TV Awards.

We keep trying to tell them it’s a documentary…

What the critics say…

“…a double act to rank with the greats.” Ben Pobjie – Sydney Morning Herald

“…no duds… and not a single one that didn’t have me smiling…” Dan Feinberg - Hollywood Reporter

“…full of hilarious jokes and classic Kiwi humour, definitely worth a watch!” Megan Harvey – New Zealand Herald

“…a deeply funny deflation of a gormless Kiwi ego…” Adam Goodal - The Spinoff

“…some of the best jokes and strongest writing out of the entirety of the What We Do in the Shadows universe.” Daniel Kurland - Bloody Disgusting

“…New Zealand’s answer to The X-Files and the police reality parody the world has been craving.” James Croot - Dominion Post

“The kind of Kiwi show we need more of… good, knockabout fun!” Diana Wichtel - New Zealand Listener

“Minogue and O’Leary have an easy chemistry”

Daniel D’Addario - Variety

97% - Rotten Tomatoes

Seen in 105 territories

BROADCAST PARTNERS

Reach out…

Paul Yates (Managing Director) New Zealand Documentary Board Avalon Studios 41 Percy Cameron Street Lower Hutt 5011 Aotearoa New Zealand Ph. +64 21 761874 email: nzdocboard@gmail.com