Tweedie Waititi grew up in the Te Whanau-a-Apanui community of Waihau Bay in the Bay of Plenty.
12 Facts About Tweedie Waititi
1.
2.
Tweedie Waititi is the first cousin of Taika Waititi, but as they were raised together through whangai adoption, they consider each other siblings.
3.
In 2017, Tweedie Waititi formed the production company Matewa Media alongside filmmaker Chelsea Winstanley.
4.
Tweedie Waititi was named for Waititi's grandmother Matewa Delamere.
5.
Taika Tweedie Waititi, who had worked on an early draft of the English language version of the film, proposed the idea to Disney, who agreed and allowed Matewa Media to start work on the film.
6.
Tweedie Waititi translated the subtitles for her cousin's film Thor: Ragnarok into Maori, for the home media and aircraft release of the film.
7.
In 2020, Tweedie Waititi worked as a script consultant on the LGBT film Rurangi, to help develop authentic Maori storylines for the production.
8.
Tweedie Waititi won the Department of Post Best New Zealand Film at the Show Me Shorts film festival in 2020, for producing the short film Daddy's Girl.
9.
In 2022, Tweedie Waititi produced two Maori language adaptations of Disney films: The Lion King, released during Matariki, and Frozen, released in 2022.
10.
Tweedie Waititi directed and produced the Maori version of Moana 2, which uses the Tairawhiti dialect.
11.
Tweedie Waititi represents a range of Maori dialects in her adaptations.
12.
For Frozen, Tweedie Waititi chose to represent southern Ngai Tahu dialects, to match the snowy atmosphere of the film.