Kennedy Kioa Faimanifo

Kennedy grew up in South Auckland, attending Finlayson Primary, Weymouth Intermediate and James Cook High School.

He feels fortunate as a Digital Artist I have been exposed to all forms of digital media. He loves anything artistic and creative, and is passionate for characters and digital drawing.

His career highlight has been working for Weta Digital. For a few years, he worked on projects like Maze Runner, Mortal Engines, Game of Thrones and the latest upcoming Avatar 2. He's worked in Australia on full animated feature films. In addition, he's worked on awesome projects like Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs Aliens TV Shows.

Growing up, he knew no one who would have entered this field of work. His uncle was a graphic designer and he supplied Kennedy with paper as a kid. Going into high school it was definitely art but more graphic design. He had a great teacher who took no rubbish, she pushed him and his class - Kennedy feels lucky enough to have been taught in a more hands on era.

He always knew he wanted to give back to his community.

"I want to show young Polynesian and Maori all the techniques I was taught early and see them succeed faster than ever have. I hope I can give someone the opportunity to experience the same, but better."