Miranda Harcourt
| Miranda Harcourt | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1962 |
| Occupation | Actress Acting coach |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Spouse(s) | Stuart McKenzie |
| Children | Peter Thomasin McKenzie Davida |
| Parent(s) | Kate Harcourt |
| Relatives | Gordon Harcourt (brother) |
Miranda Catherine Millais Harcourt ONZM (born c. 1962) is a New Zealand actress and acting coach. She is the daughter of actress Dame Kate Harcourt.
Harcourt's acting career began playing boy character on Radio New Zealand in the early 1970s. She is best known for her role as "Gemma" in the 1980s TV drama series Gloss. Harcourt spent three years acting on the show, and her character was so despicable that people spat at and insulted Harcourt in public. Harcourt received a nomination in the 1989 Film and TV Awards for best actress for the role.
Harcourt has starred in countless productions across New Zealand and in Australia. The exhaustive and comprehensive list can be found at Theatre Aotearoa Database.
Harcourt is the daughter of Dame Kate Harcourt. Her younger brother Gordon is a presenter on Fair Go.
She is married to Stuart McKenzie. Together they have three children: Peter (born 1998), Thomasin McKenzie (born 2000) and Davida (born 2006). Thomasin started following her mother and grandmother into acting in 2014, portraying the teenage Louise Nicholas in the television film Consent, Pixie Hannah on Shortland Street, and Lucy Lewis in Lucy Lewis Can't Lose.
Miranda graduated Toi Whakaari, New Zealand Drama School, in 1984. In 1990, a sponsored year at London's Central School of Speech and Drama led to an exploration of drama therapy in psychiatric institutions, with the deaf, and in prisons - the latter inspiring her collaboration with writer William Brandt for the solo play Verbatim, where Harcourt acted, solo, portraying nine characters, inmates' families and as the families of victims.
Miranda Harcourt was also a pioneer of verbatim theatre in New Zealand, in creating Verbatim (1993), in collaboration with William Brandt and Portraits (1997) in collaboration with Stuart McKenzie. Performed in front of people convicted of violent crimes, Harcourt says Verbatim "was a reflection back at the people on the inside; what their mothers, their sisters and their children had said about them". The show was well received in New Zealand theatres and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and from the inmates themselves. Miranda recollects one inmate, a year after the show, asking her where the other actresses were who had starred, having remembered the distinct characters that Miranda portrayed solo so distinctly that he remembered them as separate, individual women. The Sunday Star-Times described Verbatim as “a small miracle of dramatic theatre”. And the NZ Times said Miranda’s performance was “frightening in its stamina and emotional range”. In The Guardian, renowned reviewer Michael Billington praised Verbatim as “a remarkable solo show about violence.”
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