"I wanted that extreme ruggedness - the almost overwhelming sense that this is big dangerous country...The only way for this to have credibility was to take it to a place that was really incredible and make it look like Anthony and Alec were at the end of the earth."
-- The Edge director, Lee Tamahori

LEE TAMAHORI received worldwide acclaim for his feature film directorial debut, the powerful drama Once Were Warriors. The film, based on Alan Duff's highly controversial and best-selling novel of the same name, went on to become the highest-gross ing film in New Zealand's history, surpassing The Piano and Jurassic Park. Once Were Warriors was honored at numerous film festivals including Durban, Montreal, Venice, Hawaii, Fantasporto (Portugal), Rotterdam and Santa Barbara. It also received eight awards, including Best Film, at the New Zealand Film & Television Awards.

Tamahori's first American feature was Mulholland Falls, starring Nick Nolte, Melanie Griffith, John Malkovich, Chris Penn and Chazz Palmintieri. Produced by Richard Zanuck and Lili Fini Zanuck, the film was written by novelist Pete Dexter and Hen ry Bean. It revolves around an elite crime unit nicknamed "The Four Hats" that operated in Los Angeles in the 1950s, charged with keeping organized crime out of the city.

Describing himself as a "classic hybrid," born to a Maori father and a European mother, Tamahori joined the New Zealand film industry in the late 1970s as a boom operator, before becoming an assistant director in the early 1980s.

A multi-award winning commercial director, be began directing commercials ten years ago and has since directed over a hundred spots, winning such commercial awards as Mobius (USA), Facts (Australia), and Axis (New Zealand).