Anna Wilding is an award winning Actress, Director,Writer, Producer, known in America and abroad. Anna judged the Australian Atom Film and TV Awards 2013 and 2014. Anna Wilding called"iconic" by American and European media. Anna's work on screen has been cited as "captivating"and "beautiful".
Wilding was first discovered by an well known agent in New Zealand and then discovered by visiting Disney casting directors at the age of 16, who urged Anna to pursue an acting career internationally. Anna left New Zealand for Australia and America in her teens. Anna worked successfully as an actress on TV in comedy shows, feature film,and professional theater in New Zealand and Australia before London and USA. Professional theater shows included: Heloise and Abelard, Dazzle(Auckland Town Hall), Midsummer's Night Dream - off Broadway, When Harry Met Sally (Pasadena Arts Center) Theatresports Player of the season(Court Theater) and many others. Anna studied with Dame Ngaio Marsh at one point
Wilding was short listed for the lead role in Jane Campion's "An Angel at my Table" but didn't do the final auditions. Anna instead took up an acting scholarship she had won a place in ,at VCA in Melbourne in the winter program studying with a famed New York coach. Anna was in New York, the day the film opened in New York. Her response "I am here anyway".
Ms Wilding was 1 of 25 , selected by nationwide auditions held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion in Los Angeles(former home of the Oscars), to the former National Shakespeare Conservatory New York summer program (Yale) where she also studied directly under one of Meryl Streep's tutors.
Wilding won her first acting award, "Best Actress", at the International Theatre festival at the age of 19 for the comedy "The Patience of Silence" a play she Acted in,Wrote, Directed,Produced. Anna was known for her improv and professional Theatresports (improv comedy) player and won the "Audience Favorite Award". Ms Wilding also was a guest performer at Second City in USA.
Ms Wilding performed live at the Celebrity West Coast launch of the Tony Awards 2000 in the USA.
Reported in the New Zealand media nationwide at the time, Anna played the first "battered wife" ever seen on mainstream New Zealand television, Gail, on the long running and award winning international prime-time show Shortland St.
In prior years,bravely, Wilding moved to Los Angeles by herself at the suggestion of casting directors. Wilding did not have any kind of mentor-ship in Hollywood and worked three jobs in production and editing houses at one time, to support herself.Here she collaborated on major music videos and long form rock documentaries with major pop and rock icons and began management positions in key production houses leading to directing and producing A List music videos.
Anna Wilding made a strong ,unique ,and respectable debut into the American entertainment industry working both behind and in front of the camera.
Ms Wilding, was unimpressed with the all pervasive casting couch, that was still prevalent in those years, put her acting career on hold multiple times .Instead she worked ,showed skill in, and enjoyed the challenge of the craft and business aspects of production. Called a whiz kid, Ms Wilding continued on to work in both freelance and executive ranks of the mainstream movie business with some of the top talent in the world.
As the mainstream art house movie business has all but disappeared in the current climate, Anna branched into some of her own projects.In 2005, Anna's long form "Rebel In Me", (actress, director, producer) (made for the International Songwriter of the Year 2004 -World Music Awards) was nominated for 2005 Los Angeles Femme Film Festival and played to rapturous applause in a packed house in downtown LA.
Anna completed the theatrically released and popular award winning feature doc film Buddha Wild. (as Narrator/Presenter and Director, Writer and Producer. Her additional responsibilities also included cinematography). The film qualified for the Oscars, is archived at AMPAS by request,and was nominated for and won award in Best Feature Doc USA by Kids First and the Coalition Of Quality Media -a collection of major US studios.It played for over 60 days in cinemas.
Other notable films included Pop Culture Punk Art which played in Cannes SFC, White Sands and numerous others.
Anna was an Executive of a couple of "hip" independent film companies including Moving Horse Pictures out of London. She made an industry name in production and in-house producer and Exec positions in the mid and late nineties in the mainstream commercial independent feature film scene in LA and London. Wilding had a hand in many significant and award winning films and projects.Casual industry observers and insiders/agents nicknamed her the 'queen of the independents'.
In 2007 Wilding was also specifically thanked for her Humanitarian and consultancy work on all three Lord of the Rings films by New Line execs through her representatives.
Anna used to play in bands as a kid - mainly keyboards.
From the ages of 10-15 she was a competitive tennis player. Headlines read at the time, "Wilding Keeps the Flag Flying." Wilding won her first tournament at the age of ten after hitting balls with a stick against a shed in a country paddock. Her family, with an ill parent, could not afford the trip to Florida to train with Bolitteri. Anna still plays tennis.
Wilding appears in trade and consumer press worldwide.
Founded the registered charity Wilding Foundation. In February 2011 Ms Wilding started an emergency relief fund-raising appeal for victims of the Christchurch earthquake.She returned to NZ to work on the ground voluntarily for the charity over a year.Her home town was destroyed by the earthquakes, little to none, of the central city remains.
Wilding continues to work as a Actress, Director, Producer, Narrator/Presenter Ms Wilding recently founded the skincare line Kalon Skincare using pure new Zealand bee venom. The skincare was named # 1 Hottest New Beauty Product in America on Amazon.
