Niki Caro Biography

Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1967, Niki Caro received a BFA at the Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland and a Postgraduate Diploma in Film from Swinburne in Melbourne. She began her career doing TV commercials for companies such as New Zealand Land Transport Safety Authority, Nike and Tower Insurance. Her short film, Sure to Rise (1994), was nominated for a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

She followed that up with the television drama The Summer The Queen Came, which received best writer and best director nominations at the 1994 New Zealand Film and Television Awards. Her 1996 short film Footage was an Official Selection at the Venice Film Festival.

Niki's first feature, Memory and Desire (1997), was in the lineup at the Cannes Film Festival and won a Special Jury Prize at the New Zealand Film Awards. She went on to write and direct the one hour TV drama Plain Tastes and a half-hour episode of the drama series True Life Stories.

But it was her second feature film, Whale Rider (2002), which won Caro worldwide acclaim. Niki adapted the screenplay from Maori author Witi Ihimaera's acclaimed novel of the same name. She also directed the film, which became New Zealand's most financially successful movie. Niki and Whale Rider have won and/or been nominated for over 50 international awards, including audience awards at prestigious international film festivals such as Toronto, Sundance, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Seattle, Maui and Lake Placid.

With North Country (2005), starring Charlize Theron, Niki directed her first movie for which she hadn't written the screenplay. Another first was that it was filmed in the United States, on location in northern Minnesota.

Following the success of North Country, Niki wrote and directed the drama A Heavenly Vintage (2009), starring Whale Rider breakout Keisha Castle-Hughes.

In 2015, Niki directed Kevin Costner and Maria Bello in the Disney sport drama McFarland, USA, about a real-life cross-country team.

She followed that up with The Zookeeper's Wife (2017), a drama adapted from a Diane Ackerman novel, starring Jessica Chastain and Daniel Brühl.

Disney called upon Niki again, this time to direct a live-action version of one of their hit animated movies, with Mulan (2020). Yifei Liu was cast as the famous warrior, while Donnie Yen, Jet Li and Li Gong are also part of the cast.

Niki is married to architect Andrew Lister, the father of her two daughters. They share a common interest in lowriding (customizing cars with lower bodies) and have done several videos about it.