Trivia

His father is Maori, his mother is British.

Past jobs have included: commercial artist, photographer, boom operator, and assistant director

In recent years, has suffered the effects of Parkinson's.

Lee Tamahori was a New Zealand film director. His feature directorial debut, Once Were Warriors (1994), was a widespread critical and commercial success. It is considered one of the greatest New Zealand films ever made.

In January 2006, Tamahori was arrested on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, when according to the Los Angeles Police Department, he entered an undercover policeman's car while wearing a woman's dress and offered to perform a sex act in exchange for money. In February 2006, he pleaded no contest in a Los Angeles court to a charge of criminal trespass in return for prosecutors dropping charges of prostitution and loitering. He was placed on 36 months' probation and ordered to perform 15 days of community service.

In 1986, Tamahori co-founded the production company Flying Fish, which specialised in making commercials. He made his name with a series of high-profile television commercials, including one awarded 'Commercial of the Decade'.

He grew up in Tawa, a northern suburb of Wellington. Educated at Tawa School and Tawa College in Wellington, he began his career as a commercial artist and photographer.

Tamahori began working in the film industry in the late 1970s, opening the door to his film career while working for nothing. He worked as a boom operator for Television New Zealand, and on the feature films Skin Deep, Goodbye Pork Pie, Bad Blood, and Race for the Yankee Zephyr.

He won the New Zealand Film Award for Best Director for Once Were Warriors, with a second nomination for Mahana.

Tamahori directed a variety of works both in his native country and in Hollywood, including the survival drama The Edge (1997), the Alex Cross thriller Along Came a Spider (2001), the James Bond film Die Another Day (2002), the political biopic The Devil's Double (2011), and the period drama Mahana (2016).