intimacy coordinators aotearoa new zealand
Te Kāhui Kairuruku Taupiringa o Aotearoa
Romy Hooper
(she/her)
Tāmaki makau-rau/Auckland
Romy is an actor, intimacy coordinator, director, and audiobook narrator/voice artist based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland NZ.
Romy started studying intimacy coordination under the mentorship of Jennifer Ward-Lealand in 2020 and has continued her education through IDC, TIE and IPA (USA.) She worked with South Seas Film School graduates for multiple years and accrued many of her professional practice hours on independent and New Zealand Film Commissioned short films including Vivie, Pleasuredora, and recent Show Me Shorts award winner Just Kidding, I Actually Love You. Her television credits include Emmy award winning Rūrangi S2, Ahikāroa S4, Homebound 3.0, nOOb, feature films Shut Eye and Workmates and Warner Bros Gloriavale docu-feature Escaping Utopia. She has worked on theatrical productions of Tick, Tick Boom and Auckland Theatre Company’s Youth Theatre festival Here and Now. She has specialized in coaching and working with youth, having completed IDC’s Working with Underage Performers Methodology workshops and has completed their Level 1 and 2 Foundations of Intimacy: Pathway to Accreditation courses.
She has an Advanced Associate Diploma to Teach Speech & Drama from Trinity College London and a Bachelor of Performing Arts: Acting from Toi Whakaari NZ Drama School, and has many years of experience in theatre, television and film. She received a nomination for Best Actress at the Sydney Broadway World Awards for her portrayal of Adriana in Comedy of Errors with Pop Up Globe, and was invited as international headliner to Bristol’s Boomtown Festival in the UK with her spoken word solo show Love…and Other Noise. She has been narrating audiobooks for Blind + Low Vision NZ for a decade, and has narrated numerous titles for Audiobooks NZ, as well as romantic fiction titles for Podium Audio in the US.
Romy is a proactive member of Equity New Zealand spearheading their subcommittee for regulation of the use of artificial intelligence within short and long form voice production, and maintains current St Johns Mental Health First Aid certificates.
Email: romy@intimacycoordinatorsaotearoa.co.nz
Facebook: Facebook.com/romy.hooper
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/romyhooper/?hl=en
Acting Agent: Johnson Laird Management
Voice Agent: Johnson Laird Voices
Intimacy Coordination Credits
2024 – Syrena (Music video) – Kiki Rockwell, Oshara Ardelean
2023 – nOOb (TV Series) – Great Southern Television for ThreeNow
2023 – Escaping Utopia (Documentary feature film) – Warner Bros ITVP NZ
2023 – Good People (Short film) – Fernando Hart, Alva Casey
2023 – Pleasuredora (Short film) – Mark Prebble
2023 – Vivie (Short film) – MHM Productions
2023 – Illuminati Castrati (Short film) – Pamela Caval
2023 – Workmates (Feature film) – Workmates Productions, Morgan Leigh Stewart
2022 – Parallax of the Liminal Void (Short film) – Odin Jurray
2022 – Buona Notte (Short film) – South Seas Film School
2022 – Femme Fatales (Short film) – South Seas Film School
2022 – Ahikāroa Season 6 (TV Series) – Kura Productions
2022 – Tick, Tick Boom! (Theatrical Production) – Masked Productions
2022 – Homebound 3.0 (TV Series) – Kevin & Co
2022 – Rūrangi Season 2 (TV Series) – Craig Gainsborough-Waring
2022 – Just Kidding, I Actually Love You (Short film) – Leopold Wave Ltd
2022 – Cherry (Short film) – Robert Limm + John Dichi
2021 – Boy Blue (Short Film) – South Seas Film School
2021 – Perfect Woman (Short film) – South Seas Film School
2021 – Lunacy (Short film) – South Seas Film School
2021 – Entangled Synthesis (Short film) Leigh Elford
2021 – White Roses (Short film) – Mad Cow Productions
2021 – Yang/Young (Theatrical production) – Auckland Theatre Company
2021 – Shut Eye (Feature film) – Lumin Productions
Testimonials
I had the great pleasure of working with Romy while directing the dramatized elements for “Escaping Utopia”. The content was of an extremely traumatic and explicit nature and required a highly sensitive approach. The actors and I could not have been in better hands. Romy created an emotionally and physically safe and respectful environment for us all and as a result the work on screen is exemplary. She is highly detailed, energetic, empathetic and brave and I cannot recommend her highly enough.
BRITTA JENKINS (Director Warner Brothers International TV Production NZ)
I loved working with Romy, she has all the right qualities for intimacy work; warmth,empathy, humour and kindness. She has a great instinct for how much actors need and want from an intimacy coordinator and has a deep understanding of story and character. Romy is a master at listening and made everything feel so safe and free on set.
SOPHIE HENDERSON (Actor and Writer Workmates)
Romy was given very little time to work with building intimacy between myself and the other lead on our very fast turn-around set. Despite this, she was able to efficiently and effectively help us find safe ways to explore the scene content. What I appreciate as an actor about Romy’s IC style is that she leaves her own energy out of the equation giving space for the actors and their characters to bring the emotional imprint to the material. Thanks Romy, you were a valuable resource.
MICHELLE ANG (Actor and Writer Homebound 3.0)
The intimate scenes were beautiful, tender, funny and sexy. The mahi we did with you set us up well and your notes helped us tackle the scenes with confidence. As a personal note, something I noticed is that as a director, I didn’t have to do any work on building on screen chemistry and sparkiness between the two actors in the non-intimate scenes. I didn’t even realise this until after the shoot but your mahi meant that they had already built that connection and it showed on screen from take one. Edwin and Marion both gave wonderful performances. Thanks again for contributing to and empowering that.
MARK PREBBLE (Co-Writer and Director Pleasuredora)
My Kopere Hou short film deals with an intimacy issue, and casts that are POC. Romy made me feel comfortable diving into the themes of the short film, and took the actors through the process of consent with care and sensitivity. Her professionalism is outstanding and I would definitely be going back to her for any of my future needs as a director.
HWEILING OW (Director and Writer Vivie)