Oscar Vai To'elau Kightley (born 14 September 1969) is a Samoan-born New Zealand actor, television presenter, writer, journalist, director, and comedian. He acted in and co-wrote the successful 2006 film Sione's Wedding. Biography Kightley was born in 1969 in Apia, Samoa, the youngest of eight children, and was raised in his father's village of Faleatiu. He came to New Zealand after the death of his father, when he was 4 years old and was adopted by his aunt and uncle, who lived in West Auckland. He attended Rutherford College, where writing was his favourite subject. After leaving school, Kightley was a cadet at the Auckland Star, and worked as a journalist for four years. "I thought that was going to be me until I retired." He moved to Christchurch in 1991 to be a presenter for the children's television show Life in the Fridge Exists (L.I.F.E), where he met Tanya and Mishelle Muagututi'a, Erolia Ifopo, and Simon Small. Professional career Small had written his first full-length play, Horizons, about the Samoan experience in New Zealand, and invited Kightley to perform in it in his first acting role, along with Muagututi'a and Ifopo. Horizons opened the Performing Arts Theatre on 19 October 1991 in a production directed by Christina Stachurski. The play was re-workshopped and recast (but still with Kightley) and in August–September it played at Galaxy Theatre in Auckland, Taki Rua Depot, and the Castle Theatre at the University of Otago before returning to Christchurch. The success of Horizons inspired Kightley to form Pacific Underground theatre company in Christchurch alongside Small, Muagututi'a, Ifopo, and Michael Hodgson, a mixture of people from palagi and Pacific Island identities. In just two months Kightley and Small (who wrote as Francis Serra) had written the play Fresh off the Boat. The play was workshopped by Playmarket, and directed by Nathaniel Lees with David Fane as the lead. The play opened at the Rolleston Ave Theatre in Christchurch in November 1993, toured to the New Zealand Fringe Festival in Wellington in 1994, and also played for three weeks at Downstage in 1995. It later went to Auckland, Apia, and Brisbane. It won a Media Peace Award and was published in 2005. As well as Pacific Underground, Kightley co-founded the Island Players theatre company. He won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award in 1998 and has worked as a performer and writer for a number of television