Taratoa was born in Aotearoa New Zealand and lives in London U.K.; his mother is Maori (Ngati Raukawa, Ngati Toa me Ngati Tuwharetoa) and his father was English.

In 2025 Taratoa completed his first feature film, MARAMA, a Maori gothic horror set in Victorian England, 1859.

MARAMA received early development in the Edinburgh I.F.F. 'Talent Lab' and from the B.F.I. in London before being chosen for the year-long 2020 imagineNATIVE Indigenous Screenwriting Intensive supported by Netflix. Taratoa participated with MARAMA in the 2021 Toronto I.F.F. 'Writers' Studio', the inaugural 2021 Black List New Zealand Project and he received further development funding from the NZ Film Commission. In 2022 he was selected with MARAMA to take part in the Zurich I.F.F. 'Academy' for emerging filmmakers. In 2023 MARAMA was selected as an official project for the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

MARAMA is the first film in Taratoa's trilogy of Maori gothic horror stories.

In 2020 Taratoa received a John Brabourne Award from the Film+TV Charity and used the funding to write a spec feature script: EMKHATSINI (Between) is an alternate afterlife road trip movie that journeys from the Kingdom of Eswatini, aka Swaziland, to the coast of Mozambique. The story is inspired by the world of his short film of the same name, which he made in Eswatini. He was awarded the 'Final Draft' Fellowship to participate with EMKHATSINI in the 2022 'Stowe Story Labs' Writers' Retreat in Cambria, California.

In 2021 Taratoa wrote and directed, TAUMANU (Reclaim) in Aotearoa for NZ On Air and TVNZ. Taratoa's earlier short films have won awards and screened in festivals including Angers Premiers Plans, Aspen, Busan, Edinburgh, Encounters, BFI London and Maoriland - as well as being acquired for broadcast on BBC2, BBC3, Film4 and Canal+.

See photos of celebrities before they hit the big-time.

Taratoa Stappard

Director

Writer

Producer

Location Management