Read the complete write-up of Taika Waititi net worth, age, wife, children, height, family, parents, movies, tv shows as well as other information you need to know.
Introduction
Taika Waititi is a New Zealand actor, director, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards. His feature films Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film. Waititi’s 2003 short film Two Cars, One Night earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Live Action Short Film.
Waititi co-wrote, co-directed and starred in the horror-comedy film What We Do in the Shadows (2014) with Jemaine Clement, which was adapted into a television series of the same name (2019–present). The series has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. His most recent directing credits include the superhero film Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and the black comedy film Jojo Rabbit (2019), the latter of which he also wrote and starred in as an imaginary version of Adolf Hitler.
His film Jojo Rabbit received six Academy Award nominations and won for Best Adapted Screenplay. Waititi also earned a Grammy Award for producing the film’s soundtrack. In addition to directing an episode of the television series The Mandalorian (2019–present), he also voices the character IG-11, for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance. Rio Hackford portrayed the character.
Early life
| Name | Taika Waititi |
| Net Worth | $15 million |
| Occupation | Actor, Director, Comedian, Writer, Producer |
| Height | 1.84m |
| Age | 46 years |
Taika David Cohen ONZM was born on August 16, 1975 (age 46 years) in Raukokore in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand’s North Island, and grew up on both the East Coast and in the Aro Valley of Wellington. His father was an artist of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui descent, whilst his mother, Robin Cohen, is a schoolteacher.
Waititi stated that his mother’s family were Russian Jews “mixed with a bit of Irish” and another European ancestry, while his father’s side was “Māori and a little bit of French Canadian”. Waititi describes himself as a “Polynesian Jew”, although he has stated that he never grew up in an “actively practicing Jewish household”.
His parents split up when he was around five, and he was raised primarily by his mother. He attended Onslow College, then studied theatre at Victoria University of Wellington where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1997. He originally used his mother’s surname, Cohen, for his work in film and writing, and his father’s, Waititi, for visual arts endeavors. Following the success of his first short film, he continued to use Waititi professionally.
Career
Taika Waititi was part of the five-member comedy ensemble So You’re a Man while a student at Victoria University, which toured New Zealand and Australia with some success. He was half of the comedy duo The Humourbeasts alongside Jemaine Clement, which received New Zealand’s highest comedy accolade, the Billy T Award, in 1999. Among a variety of artistic interests, Waititi began making comical short films for New Zealand’s annual 48-hour film contest.
Waititi’s short film Two Cars, One Night (2003) earned him an Academy Award nomination in 2005. At the awards ceremony, he famously feigned falling asleep as the nominations were being read. His first feature film, a romantic comedy called Eagle vs Shark, was released in U.S. theatres for limited distribution in 2007. It stars Waititi’s then-real-life partner, Loren Horsley. That year, Waititi wrote and directed one episode of the TV show Flight of the Conchords and directed another.
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In 2010, Taika Waititi acted in the New Zealand TV3 improv sketch comedy show Radiradirah, together with frequent collaborators including Rhys Darby and Jemaine Clement. His second feature, Boy, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2010 and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Waititi also took on one of the main roles, as the ex-con father who returns to his family. On its release in New Zealand, Boy received enthusiastic reviews and was successful at the local box office, eclipsing several records.
Following the film’s success, Waititi hoped its signature track, “Poi E”, would get to #1 (for the second time) on the New Zealand charts. It reached #3 but became #1 on iTunes. In 2011, Waititi directed the New Zealand TV series Super City starring Madeleine Sami, who plays five characters living in one city. That year, Waititi portrayed Thomas Kalmaku in the superhero film Green Lantern.
Taika Waititi co-wrote, co-directed and acted in the vampire comedy mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows with Clement in 2013. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2014. Waititi and Clement played members of a group of vampires who live in an appropriately gothic house in modern-day Wellington. A television adaptation of the film was commissioned in May 2018, with Waititi as an executive producer and director. The series of the same name premiered on FX in March 2019; its second season received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series.
Waititi’s fourth feature, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. When it was released in New Zealand, the comedy-adventure broke Waititi’s own record for a New Zealand film in its opening weekend. Based on a book by Barry Crump, it centers on a young boy (played by Julian Dennison) and a grumpy man (played by Sam Neill) on the run in the forest. Waititi wrote the initial screenplay for the 2016 Disney film Moana, which focused on gender and family. Those elements were passed over in favour of what became the final story.
In 2017, Waititi won the award for New Zealander of the Year but was unable to receive it in person due to work commitments. That year, he directed his first major studio film, Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok, which was released in October. He also portrayed Korg, a Kronan, via motion capture in the film.
He had previously directed a short film series for Marvel called Team Thor, chronicling the lives of Thor and his roommate, Darryl Jacobson. Thor: Ragnarok earned critical praise and was successful at the box office. Waititi was later consulted by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely on Thor’s storylines for Avengers: Infinity War, to maintain the character’s consistency in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In 2019, Waititi wrote and directed Jojo Rabbit, based on the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens, the 1940s-set story of a child in the Hitler Youth whose mother is secretly hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Waititi plays Adolf Hitler as the boy’s imaginary friend.
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Taika Waititi received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. He won the latter, making him the first person of Māori descent to win an Academy Award in a screenplay category, and the first indigenous person to be nominated for and win Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2021 he won the Grammy Award for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media as a producer of the Jojo Rabbit soundtrack.
In October 2018, Lucasfilm announced that Waititi would be one of the directors of the Star Wars live-action streaming series The Mandalorian, which tells the story of a lone Mandalorian gunfighter in the period between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. The series premiered on 12 November 2019; Waititi also voices a droid bounty hunter named IG-11 in the series. He directed the series’ first-season finale, “Chapter 8: Redemption”. His voiceover work earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance in 2020.
Other projects
Taika Waititi narrated a charity reading of James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl in 2020. He portrayed Ratcatcher in the DC superhero film The Suicide Squad, released in August 2021 to positive reviews. Also in August, Waititi portrayed Antwan Hovachelik, the antagonist of the action-comedy film Free Guy.
Waititi co-created the comedy series Reservation Dogs, which chronicles the lives of a group of indigenous Oklahoma teens, and comprises a main cast, directors, producers, and writers of indigenous peoples. It premiered on FX to positive reviews.
He was an executive producer and starred as Blackbeard in the HBO Max comedy series Our Flag Means Death. The first season was released in March 2022. He wrote and directed the superhero film Thor: Love and Thunder, a sequel to Thor: Ragnarok. Principal photography finished in June 2021; it is scheduled for a July 2022 release.
Waititi also directed a feature film adaptation of the documentary Next Goal Wins prior to directing Thor: Love and Thunder. The film, which had been delayed, is set to be released in late 2022 after Armie Hammer’s scenes were re-shot with Will Arnett taking over the role. He is set to direct a live-action film adaptation of Akira.
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He is slated to co-write a sequel to What We Do in the Shadows, titled We’re Wolves, and direct and co-write a live-action Star Wars film. Waititi is attached to write, direct and executive produce two animated series for Netflix based on Roald Dahl’s children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and its sequel, one adapting the novels and the other focused on the novel’s Oompa Loompa characters.
Taika Waititi is set to executive produce and direct the Showtime limited series The Auteur. He is slated to write and direct a film based on Flash Gordon for 20th Century Studios. In November 2021, it was announced that Waititi would adapt The Incal into a feature film.
Wife
Taika Waititi is currently in a relationship with British singer Rita Ora since 2021. However, Waititi was married to his first wife Chelsea Winstanley who is a New Zealand film producer from 2011 to 2018. Waititi and his ex-wife had two children Matewa Kiritapu, and Te Hinekāhu. He and his partner Winstanley separated in 2018. However, Waititi incorporates his Māori and indigenous heritage into his projects, such as by including “Indigenous attachments” and conducting a Welcome to the Country ceremony during the start of filming on set in Australia.
Taika Waititi net worth
How much is Taika Waititi worth? Taika Waititi net worth is estimated at around $15 million. His main source of income is from his career as an actor, director, comedian, writer and producer. Waititi successful career has earned him some luxurious lifestyles and some fancy cars trips. He is one of the richest and most influential actors in New Zealand. However, he is an executive producer of the New Zealand films The Breaker Upperers (2018), Baby Done (2020), and Night Raiders (2021), all directed by Māori or indigenous filmmakers.