Career
Born in Gisborne on 11 September 1945, the third youngest in a family of ten children, Henare affiliates to the Māori tribes of Ngati Porou and Ngati Hine. He lived on a farm until the age of 12 on the East Coast of New Zealand"s North Island. Henare has a distinguished career as an actor in New Zealand with 50 years on stage and screen.
Henare began his acting career after a stint as a postman and a trainee teacher.
He has played lead roles in film, television, opera and theatre as well as radio and voice work. An early success was landing a role in a New Zealand Opera production of Porgy and Bess in 1965.
He later toured Australia in Jesus Christ Superstar and Phantom of the Opera. Film Stage On stage, Henare has played a variety of roles from classical Shakespeare, musicals, operas to contemporary New Zealand theatre.
In 2014 Henare became patron of the Newmarket Stage Company, a professional company based in Newmarket, Auckland.
To help launch the company Henare played the lead in their first two productions of Educating Rita by Willy Russell and the New Zealand premiere of Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom and Jeffrey Hatcher.